More than half a million Venezuelans have crossed into Ecuador this year as part of one of the largest mass migrations in Latin American history, the United Nations said on Aug. 17.
About 547,000 citizens of the crisis-stricken South American country have entered Ecuador since January – mostly through its northern border with Colombia – to escape rampant crime and political violence, a collapsing economy and severe shortages of food and medicines.
That is nearly 10 times the number of migrants and refugees who attempted to cross the Mediterranean into Europe over the same period. The International Organization for Migration this week announced that 59,271 migrants and refugees tried to reach Europe by sea between January and August, with most coming to Spain, Italy or Greece.
The UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, said a daily average of up to 3,000 Venezuelan men, women and children had entered Ecuador this year but that the already “massive influx” was now accelerating further.
About 30,000 Venezuelans – more than 4,000 per day – arrived in the first week of August, leading Ecuador to declare a month-long state of emergency.
Some reports have suggested fears Colombia’s newly installed president, Iván Duque, could close his country’s borders had caused the surge which has seen huge crowds of roofless migrants converge on the Rumichaca Bridge between Colombia and Ecuador.
UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told reporters: “Many of the Venezuelans are moving on foot in an odyssey of days and even weeks in precarious conditions.”
Source: The Guardian
