Resources allocated to support millions of Venezuelan migrants are far from enough to cover their basic needs. The R4V platform, which aims to support Venezuelan migrants and refugees living in 17 countries, has announced that so far it has failed to collect sufficient resources to meet their needs for 2021. The Venezuelan migration crisis still fails to obtain adequate attention from international donors which hampers efforts to properly address the issue.
Situation of Venezuelan migrants and refugees
While Venezuelans continue to flee from their country of origin due to sharply rising levels of hunger and poverty, they also have problems finding safe shelter in neighboring countries. Very often they are also affected by the poverty and homelessness that they had hoped to escape from.
The Brazilian city, Pacaraima, on the border with Venezuela is host to 4,015 Venezuelan migrants, which is 243% more compared to May 2021. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that as many as 2,065 of these are homeless and sleeping on the streets. Similarly, thousands of families living in the Colombian La Guajira province, on the border with Venezuela, are struggling with poverty, a situation that has been worsened even further by the pandemic.
Financial prospects
Against this gloomy background R4V, the Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela, has collected 29.8% of the funds needed for this year, i.e., US$419.97 million but, to meet all its needs, a total of US$US1.44 billion is required. The largest single donor is the U.S. as can be seen from the graph below.
Fig.1. Main contributions by donors in USD
Source: R4V platform
Funding is mostly channeled through the United Nations and international non-governmental organizations:
Fig.2. Funds received by organization type
Source: R4V platform
R4V channels resources for the most urgent needs of Venezuelan refugees and migrants living abroad, i.e., food, healthcare, or education, mostly in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Fig.3.Funding status by sector in USD
Source: R4V platform
Migration prospects
The money that R4V seeks to collect aims to cover the needs of 3.3 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants. Yet, the platform has assessed that the actual number of migrants hosted by other countries is 5.6 million with the majority of those host states being countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Organization of American States estimates that the number of Venezuelan migrants and refugees may even increase to 7 million next year, whereas R4V puts this figure at about 8.13 million if the Venezuelans living in other countries are borne in mind.
What is R4V?
The R4V platform was created to support Venezuelans who fled from their country. It was established by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in 2018 thanks to an initiative of the UN Secretary-General. Its task is to lead and coordinate the regional response to the situation of Venezuelan migrants and refugees, including ensuring their basic rights and services. The platform conducts its activities in 17 countries where Venezuelan migrants and refugees stay. National platforms to support Venezuelan migrants and refugees were created in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Sub-regional platforms were created in the Caribbean, Central America & Mexico, and Southern Cone (Uruguay, Argentina).
