CORONAVIRUS PUSHES BIGGEST MIGRATION IN AMERICAS UNDERGROUND

[Bacchus4.0]

https://www.ozy.com/the-new-and-the-next/the-coronavirus-is-driving-the-biggest-migration-in-the-americas-underground/291984/

When Colombian President Iván Duque’s government closed the country’s border with Venezuela on March 14, its move was aimed at reducing the risk of the coronavirus spreading into the nation from its troubled neighbor. Two weeks later, that decision appears to have spawned a different consequence — merely making it even more dangerous and exploitative for Venezuelan migrants seeking to escape their country.

Desperate to flee or at least access Colombia’s health services and food supplies, Venezuelan migrants are now paying illegal armed groups for passage through dangerous informal border crossings. Known locally as “trochas,” these crossings are spread along the 1,379-mile border between Colombia and Venezuela.

Since 2016, Venezuelans have crossed into Colombia to escape their crippled economy, which left their public health service in ruin and created shortages of food and basic medical supplies. Today, 1.7 million Venezuelan migrants and refugees reside in Colombia. Most of them came legally, with Colombia keeping its borders open longer than most Latin American nations even as the migration became a flood last year.

But since the border closure — OZY was the first to report on the increasing likelihood of that move — a growing body of evidence suggests Venezuelan migrants trying to leave their country are using trochas to get into Colombia. On one occasion, 60 riot police were sent to an area near Cucuta, a Colombian border town, after an instance of illegal migration. Experts and observers say thousands of Venezuelans might be crossing over every day. And other reports suggest migrants are now paying up to 100,000 pesos ($25 U.S.) to cross the trochas and around 25,000 pesos ($6 U.S.) for guides to help them reach the other side. In effect, the border closure has merely pushed what is the largest migrant crisis in the Americas — Venezuelans leaving their nation — underground, potentially making it even harder to manage.