The UN has announced that number of people left Venezuela due to country’s ongoing political and economic crisis has reached some four million.
Most of the Venezuelans who have fled, were being hosted in Latin America, more than half are in Colombia and Peru, followed by Chile, Ecuador, Argentina and Brazil.
In a joint statement, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), described the scale of the exodus as “staggering”, with the number of displaced people jumping by a million over a seven-month period, from November 2018.
“These alarming figures highlight the urgent need to support host communities in the receiving countries. Latin American and Caribbean countries are doing their part to respond to this unprecedented crisis, but they cannot be expected to continue doing it without international help”, said Eduardo Stein, joint UNHCR-IOM Special Representative for Venezuelan refugees and migrants.
