BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) – Colombia announced on Monday that it will register hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants and refugees who are currently undocumented in the country, in order to provide them with legal residence permits and facilitate their access to health care and legal job opportunities.
President Ivan Duque said that, through a new temporary protection statute, Venezuelan migrants who are in the country illegally will be able to obtain ten-year residence permits, while migrants who are currently in temporary residence will be able to extend the your stay.
The new measure could benefit up to one million Venezuelan citizens currently living in Colombia without adequate papers, as well as hundreds of thousands who need to extend their temporary visas.
President Duque announced the protection measure in a stately government palace in Bogota while standing next to Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
“As we make this historic and momentous step for Latin America, we hope other countries will follow our example,” Duque said in a room full of ambassadors and diplomats, who were invited to witness the announcement.
Grandi said the new policy would improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of impoverished people and described it as an “extraordinary gesture” of humanity, pragmatism and commitment to human rights.
The Colombian government estimates that 1.8 million Venezuelans currently live in the country and that 55% do not have adequate residence documents. Most have arrived since 2015 to escape hyperinflation, food shortages and an increasingly authoritarian government.
Duque said registering these undocumented immigrants and refugees would benefit Colombia’s security agencies and would also make the provision of social services, including coronavirus vaccines, more efficient.
The government said Venezuelans who legally arrive in Colombia in the next two years will also be able to apply for temporary protection.
The new policy comes after Donald Trump signed an executive order in the last days of his presidency that stopped the deportations of tens of thousands of Venezuelans living in the United States.
Colombia’s new temporary protection status will apply as immigrants leaving Venezuela have more difficulty settling in other South American countries, due to the closure of land borders and growing anti-immigrant sentiment.
In Ecuador, hundreds of Venezuelans are currently trapped on the country’s southern border following Peru’s decision to send tanks and troops to the area to stop illegal border crossings.
Other popular destinations for Venezuelan migrants are Panama and Chile, which have imposed visa requirements that make it difficult for Venezuelans to move to these countries.
According to the United Nations, there are 4.7 million Venezuelan immigrants and other refugees in other Latin American countries after fleeing economic collapse and political division in their homeland. More than a third live in Colombia.
Duque said that while Colombia’s decision will provide some relief, he did not expect it to stop the Venezuelan exodus.
“If we want to stop this crisis, countries must reflect on how to end the dictatorship in Venezuela,” he said. “We need to think about how to establish a transitional government and organize free elections.”