Fleeing Venezuela, migrants flood Colombia amid region’s worst humanitarian crisis in decades

[TomSea]

Fleeing Venezuela, migrants flood Colombia amid region’s worst humanitarian crisis in decades
Megan Janetsky, Special to USA Today Published 3:22 a.m. ET Nov. 19, 2018

(Video)
As Venezuelans flee into Colombia to escape their country’s collapsing economy, a grim toll is becoming evident among the youngest arrivals: Children are sleeping on streets, suffering malnutrition and, in a few cases, abandoned. (July 13) AP

MEDELLIN, Colombia — Lis Torrealba, a teenage mother from Venezuela, is perched on the edge of a milling street in downtown Medellin, Colombia, the same way she came to the country: alone, with her one-year-old daughter swaddled in the crook of her arm.

Once a student, Torrealba fled across the Venezuelan border three months ago with no prospects of a visa, a job or a future in Colombia.

“The money in our country, I couldn't even buy candy if I wanted to,” she said. “I can't buy anything, if there's something you need. You would need a stack of money to even pay for a tomato. You would need a big stack of money.”

Read more at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/11/19/venezuela-colombia-migrants-nicolas-maduro-humanitarian-crisis-migrants-food-and-medicine-shortages/1808395002/

I don't know how widespread it is, this is from a big city; but I talked to someone who had been to Colombia and yes, the "refguees" are setting up and living in tent cities and squalor. It really is going on.

[TomSea]

Colombia Establishes Camp in Bogotá for Massive Influx of Venezuelan Migrants
by Jared Wade
November 15, 2018

More than a million Venezuelans have already crossed the border to live Colombia, and officials in Bogotá haven now formally opened a camp to help house an influx that has left so many migrants living in parks, near bus stations, and in other public spaces in the capital.

The camp is situation on a football field and features cots inside yellow tents in a high-altitude metropolis where temperatures hit an annual low of 37 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees celsius) in February and have dipped down to 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees celsius) multiple nights over the past month.

The camp has an initial capacity to house 500 people, an official in the Bogotá mayor’s office told the Associated Press, and has been designed after the temporary refugee shelter established in France to serve Syrian migrants.

Read more at: http://www.financecolombia.com/colombia-establishes-camp-for-massive-influx-of-venezuelan-migrants/

[TomSea]

'Cages are more dignified': Colombia brings cold comfort for Venezuelans

With Venezuela in turmoil, more than 250,000 people have fled to Colombia’s first migrant camp, in Bogotá. But with scant food and no heating or sanitation, their hardship is unrelenting

The camp for Venezuelan migrants installed by the Colombian government in Bogotá. Photograph: Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters

The feet of Estilita López, 78 years old, are bloodied and bruised from the arduous journey from Yaracuy, in northern Venezuela, to Bogotá, the Colombian capital. Together with 460 fellow compatriots, she now lives in a new, city-funded migrant camp that has just sprung up on a football pitch near the airport.

“I had to leave Venezuela, but this is all there is for us here,” says López, taking shelter from the beating sun in the yellow tent she shares with her daughter and grandchildren as clothes soaked by an earlier downpour dry out on the grass nearby. “We’re waiting to eat something, and I need to see a doctor about my feet.”

Oil-rich Venezuela is mired in economic and political turmoil, with rampant shortages in staple foods and basic medicines. Hyperinflation has rendered the currency practically worthless, and crime is widespread. The dire situation has triggered an exodus of Venezuelans, arguably the largest mass migration in Latin America’s history.

Read more with more photos at: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/nov/19/cages-are-more-dignified-colombia-holds-cold-comfort-for-venezuelan-migrants-bogota

Actually, that above doesn't look to bad for a refugee camp; but apparently, it is.

Topics merged, all different takes on the same subject, Venezuelans fleeing Venezuela.

[Fishrrman]

"More than a million Venezuelans have already crossed the border to live Colombia, and officials in Bogotá haven now formally opened a camp to help house an influx that has left so many migrants living in parks, near bus stations, and in other public spaces in the capital."

Just be glad that they're not headed this way.
At least... not yet.

[GtHawk]

I think Germany should take them, after all they have a long history with South America And at least they are more compatible religion wise.