The migration of Venezuelans to Colombia has never stopped, just slowed down, even in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation of a significant vulnerability of the population that continues to cross the border into Colombia becomes evident in recent estimations by local human rights organizations according to which almost half of the migrants suffer some degree of malnutrition.

Comparte por una Vida Colombia is one of these organizations. Her executive director, Lala Lovera, explained that the organization found that food insecurity is affecting a part of the Venezuelan migrant population, which aggravates their already delicate situation in Colombia.

“In our work with the Venezuelan migrant community in Norte de Santander, we realized the vulnerability of many of them, especially children, in the school system. Children are not leaving malnutrition behind when they migrate, and our anthropometric studies have found that 42% of them present some degree of malnutrition.”

Lovera added that the finding confirmed previous warnings from experts like Susana Raffalli and organizations like the Bengoa Foundation and Fe y Alegría. “With a diaspora on the move, we could not ignore the signs from Venezuela.”

The study conducted by Por una Vida Colombia was framed in the 2021 report titled Vaivén, realidad de la migración pendular colombo-venezolana en tiempos de pandemia (The reality of pendular migration along the Colombia-Venezuela border in times of pandemic). Although it has been almost two years since the conduct of the study, the reality has not changed much, on the contrary, it has even worsened.

A report from the World Food Program dated February 2023 estimated that 52% (1.3 million) of the 2.5 million Venezuelan migrants in Colombia with a desire to remain in the country are in a situation of food insecurity.

Por una Vida Colombia pointed out that 42% of Venezuelan migrant children and teenagers in Colombia had some degree of malnutrition, 17% were overweight or obese and 3% suffered acute malnutrition.

“We first sought to stabilize the communities following the guidelines of UNICEF, also endorsed by the Colombian Ministry of Health, and applied an 8-month nutritional treatment program. At the same time, we provided support to this population regarding food security.”

Closing the gaps in education

Another challenge of Venezuelan migration in many host countries is access to health, education and employment, especially considering that governments have been working on regularization policies, but difficulties remain.

Ms. Lovera explained that her organization has looked for options so that Venezuelan children can study in Colombian schools despite not having their documentation in order.

“Much of the documentation required from Venezuelan children is difficult to obtain, and that made us work to find other mechanisms to receive them and reduce their learning lag. We provide information to migrants, institutions and host communities in order to contribute to the process of social integration.”

According to Ms. Lovera, there were cases of Venezuelan children who could not graduate because they were not properly regularized.

Translated by José Rafael Medina