Proiuris
[Press release] Date: May 22, 2023
Proiuris: More than 300,000 people could emigrate from Venezuela in the coming months.
The persistent economic crisis in Venezuela and the growing desire for family reunification will continue to push emigration.
Caracas, Venezuela – In the recent report Women Left Behind, Proiuris warns about the acute economic situation faced by Venezuelan households and the prevalence of the aspiration to emigrate, mainly to seek better economic conditions, but also to reunite with family members who emigrated.
The hardships in the cases documented by Proiuris have been exacerbated by the breakdown of the family nucleus due to emigration, with a special burden on the women who stayed in Venezuela. The hardships include a lack of income to cover basic needs in Venezuela, the difficulties in accessing essential public services, and the obligation to assume new roles within the family to make up for the absence of those who left.
By close of 2023, inflation in Venezuela will exceed 400%, according to unofficial estimates, and updated projections anticipate economic growth for 2023 at just 2%. This stands in contrast to recent narratives about economic recovery, and the continuation of economic hardship is pushing more Venezuelans to cross borders.
Between March 2022 and March 2023, the estimated number of Venezuelan migrants in the world increased by more than 1 million, and the flows so far this year confirm that the root causes for this exodus are still present.
The Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela (R4V) estimates that 7.2 million Venezuelans have left the country, an increase of more than one million from the number registered a year earlier.[1] This year, the reports processed by R4V have been registering an average increase of 36,000 migrants each month, a figure that could accelerate in the coming months.
Proiuris anticipates that in the coming months the migrant flows via land and sea borders with Colombia, Brazil and the Caribbean islands will increase. The recent increase in Venezuelans crossing through the El Darién jungle—more than 40,000 in 2023, according to Panamanian authorities—reflects the complex crisis that persists in the country and that the Venezuelan State insists on denying.
In view of this distressing reality, it should be a priority for the international community to redouble efforts to seek support for Venezuelans and host countries to guarantee protection for migrants, promoting integration and development projects and preventing them from being victims of violence, human trafficking, xenophobia, and stigmatization.
[1] As of March 2022, the estimate was 6.1 million.
Email: comunicaciones@proiuris.org
