As of last month (September), Brazil has been reporting 300 to 500 hundred daily entries of Venezuelans fleeing hardship in their home country. This is according to UN Resident Coordinator, Yesim Oruc who recently engaged local media representatives.
Oruc said this as she sought to drive home the point that Guyana is not the primary destination for persons fleeing Venezuela.
She said that as the United Nations continues to pay attention to the movement of people, she remains in contact with her colleagues in other jurisdictions. They are reporting much higher numbers of Venezuelan refugees/ migrants than that which is being recording in Guyana.
Oruc said, “We are monitoring, we are in touch with our colleagues in New York and so. Right now, we have no reason to think that there is a big move coming to Guyana…We are not seeing a specific target destination Guyana and we are in daily contact with our colleagues in Brazil and Venezuela.”
The United Nations is reporting almost 22,000 Venezuelan refugees/ migrants dwelling in Guyana. This number slightly differs from that which is reported by HIAS Guyana—24,000.
Even if the average number of Venezuelans seeking refugee here swells to 30,000 in the near future, Guyana still would not be considered a primary host of Venezuelans.
Venezuela is bounded by Guyana to the east, Brazil to the south and Colombia to the southwest and west.
Brazil, as of April this year, was reported by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to be hosting some 425,000 Venezuelans. This number is estimated to have escalated significantly in recent months.
Colombia, Venezuela’s other neighbour, is recorded by several international organizations, including the IOM, HIAS and Amnesty International, as the main host of Venezuelan refugees and migrants. As of last month, Amnesty International reported some 2.9 million Venezuelans living in Colombia.
Amnesty International reported that as at August 2023, more than **7.71 million** Venezuelans are living outside of their country.
Further, Amnesty International said that more than 80% of these people are in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Spanish speaking countries such as Peru, Ecuador and Chile host large numbers of Venezuelans.
Peru is reported to have some 1.5 million Venezuelan refugee/ migrants while 475,000 and 444,000 reside in Ecuador and Chile respectively.
Amnesty International says, “outside of Latin America and the Caribbean, the top 10 host countries include: the United States, which ranks 3rd, with 545,000 Venezuelan nationals in its territory (September 2021 figure); and Spain, in 5th position, with 477,000 (January 2022 figure).”
