28,000 V’zuelans living in TT

THE Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela (R4V) said this week that TT is the second Caribbean country with the most Venezuelan migrants (28,500), behind only the Dominican Republic (115,300).

R4V is an interagency operation website which relies on government figures, its own analysis, and data from the Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan, an operational data portal jointly led by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

According to November 2021 data, 28,500 Venezuelans live in TT, a difference of 4,331 more than November 2020 (24,169).

The website reported 21,000 Venezuelans here in November 2019. In two years, TT has received 7,000 migrants from the neighbouring country, according to R4V.

In its report for October 2021, the UNHCR said 21,000 migrants had requested refuge in TT, of which 80 per cent are Venezuelans.

This same data provided by R4V, this week, reported the number of migrants from Venezuela outside their country amounted to 6.04 million, which represents an increase of 371,016 in the last two months when compared to the September update.

The R4V report said following the closure of borders in all countries in 2020 due to the pandemic, in 2021 there was a considerable increase in irregular flows that required governments to adapt their responses to humanitarian protection.

“In the last year, refugees and migrants from Venezuela have become even more vulnerable, among other things, due to the loss of their already limited social and economic support to cover basic needs, especially in vital areas such as accommodation, food, protection and health care,” the report said.

Colombia is the nation with the largest number of these migrants with 1.84 million. They are followed by Peru (1.29 million); Ecuador (508,900); Chile (448,100), and Brazil (261,400).

In the Caribbean, after the Dominican Republic and TT, Guyana has the most Venezuelans in its territory (24,500), followed by Aruba (17,000) and Curaçao (14,200).

These R4V website did not indicate date to show the number of Venezuelans who decided to return home.

According to Migración Colombia and the Federal Police of Brazil, since March 2020, almost 150,000 Venezuelans have returned, at least temporarily, to their country of origin.