Colombia's Precarious Situation: The Impact of Venezuelan Refugees

Introduction

Colombia is in the north of South America, looking at it on the map it is bordered by the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, with Venezuela sitting legitimately east of it. According to Gale Global Issues Online Collection, “by early 2018, the Colombian government reported over half a million Venezuelans had arrived, mostly as economic refugees. In 2019, the UN estimated the population of Colombia to be 50.34 million” (Gale). That is a lot of immigrants fleeing into another country, over a year’s time. Which would cause turmoil in another country. Why would citizens flee their homeland and go to another country? “Ninety percent of the country lives below the poverty line, and only 3 percent of Venezuelans can afford to eat three meals a day. Hospitals have run out of the most basic supplies — even paper on which to take medical notes” (Glazer). Venezuela has been in financial and political disturbance since 2014 when oil costs started to decay, prompting a devasting recession. Iván Duque Márquez (President of Colombia) should stop Venezuela refugees from coming over the border due to Colombian citizens becoming jobless, crimes increasing, and the lack of education for the children.

The impact Venezuelans are going through are affecting the Colombians, due to this depression. They are taking over the jobs in Colombia, causing the citizens jobless, due to the immigrants working at a lower rate. Over a million of Venezuelans are in Colombia and the majority are there without a visa. According to Provash Budden he states, “we must address the impact of displacement in countries such as Colombia, where tensions are rising as Venezuelans take jobs at lower, exploitative wages than legally allowed, and also sell items brought from Venezuela at a lower cost than Colombian businesses can afford to compete with. Colombians tell us they are empathetic to the plight of Venezuelans, but growing competition for jobs and resources exacerbates the numerous challenges their communities face.”

Colombians are becoming jobless due to the growing population of Venezuelans; it is causing poverty to increase. More than 12.7 million individuals in Colombia live on under $2 every day. In excess of 7 million individuals are poor and 2 million are living in extraordinary poor. This was before Venezuelans came in. So, only you could envision how the numbers have expanded since the population has expanded too. These realities about destitution in Colombia will help give a superior comprehension of the social and monetary circumstances in the nation. Venezuelans is smuggling cattle into Colombia and causing them to not to get free from the contagious disease foot-and-mouth. “Smugglers bring cattle into Colombia from Venezuela, a country undergoing a serious economic crisis and that is not free of this disease” (BBC Monitoring Americas). The farmers are not making any money due to their cattle catching diseases and which is causing more poverty. If the cattle are becoming sick that means the humans may be affected as well. They opened their arms which is making it harder for the Colombians.

Healthcare is on a rise according to BBC Monitoring Americans, “Colombia's healthcare system is already precarious, and as Venezuelans in need of healthcare arrive, it puts more strain on the system.” In excess of 4 million individuals have fled Venezuela since 2014 to get away from extraordinary nourishment and prescription deficiencies. The greater part entered Colombia, where they don't have the capacity to think about these individuals. They were at that point thought about a poor nation. Presently with this going on it just makes it awful on the whole country attempting to keep up their residents and now taking on millions more. Which makes funding more difficult to get and keep.

With the overpopulation of Colombia makes the pace of crimes to increase. Drugs being one of those violations to increment. Colombia is known for being the primary maker on the planet for cocaine, furthermore the greatest drug dealer. The government attempting to battle drugs is plainly pivotal, harmony must remain, however incapable to finish this with the population being at an unequaled high. According to Daphne Panayotatos, an advocate at Refugees International, “calls Colombia “a ticking time bomb,” pointing to recent street protests against corruption, government-proposed cuts in pensions and police violence as well as the prominence of drug and trafficking groups on the border who prey on migrants”(qtd. in Glazer). A tomb bomb that would cause more chaos in the gangs,

Venezuelan vagrants are joining Colombia's groups of gangs. There is a scarcely discernible difference between being a casualty of composed wrongdoing to turning into a functioning, con artist part of the chain also. Some are being enrolled to work for criminal guerrilla gatherings, for example, the National Liberation Army (ELN), and possess made by previous individuals from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The Venezuelan transient ladies are especially defenseless against being dealt into prostitution with bogus guarantees of different sorts of work. More lawbreakers and rebels in Colombia attempt to get urgent Venezuelans to assist them with making cocaine and battle the government. Which is the reason the government needs to stop the overpopulation with Venezuelans since it is doing more terrible than great. Drug dealing possess are doing combating one another and the military. The Colombians hoped to fortify their positions. BBC Monitoring America states, “The El Tiempo editorial of 3 October said the government's decision to issue a new policy relating to the possession of narcotics was in response to 'a clamor by the public' about the growing pervasiveness of micro-trafficking affecting the nation's youth. It also acknowledged that the measure faced constitutional questions but that the shift in policy stemmed from a very real problem” (BBC Monitoring Americas). If you have the drugs and the gangs going on with the overpopulation, then you know there will be violence that comes next.

Savagery in Colombia because of overpopulation. A normal of one Venezuelan passed on viciously in Colombia every day in the initial seven months in 2019, because of battles and suicide, and sexual viciousness. As furnished gatherings battle for the void left by the FARC, many regular citizens have been trapped in the contention. Venezuelans who are escaping the helpful crisis in their own nation are being trapped in the nexus of war and frantic flight. The Colombian government is missing the mark on its human rights commitments to shield regular folks from manhandles and to give unfortunate casualties review. The Colombian government should prevent the exiles from going into their country, and a great deal of this could have been maintained a strategic distance from. “In late January 2019, politician Juan Guaidó (1983–) contested Maduro's leadership and declared himself interim president of Venezuela. In the following weeks, many countries voiced their support and recognized Guaidó's leadership. In February, Violence erupted at Venezuela's borders with Brazil and Colombia as the Maduro administration blocked shipments of humanitarian aid,” according to Gale Global Issues Online Collection. So even though the government tired to stop it, it is to be believed it was to late in the game.

The overpopulation has influenced the youngsters and their instruction. A great many Venezuelan kids cross in Colombia to get an education. Teachers were leaving and there are no classes, which was putting a gigantic strain on the Colombian educational system. This emergency that is going on can hurt an age of kids. No it isn't the kids' battle yet with the Colombian government needing to help it is putting a strain on the offspring on Colombia. Classes are full to the limit. Almost 50 percent expansion in the number of understudies originating from Venezuela somewhere in the range of 2018 and 2019. They need more than 8000 spaces to have the option to cover the interest of migrants. Something should be finished with the movement into Colombia and to help the Venezuelan youngsters who land in a bad way. It isn't only the Colombian's legislatures obligation to dominate. According to BBC Monitoring, “Colombia's education system has also been struggling to accommodate an increase in the student population, including the school meal program” (BBC Monitioring Americas).

Colombia turned into a nation of development and still has the most noteworthy number of inside uprooted individuals on the planet. Colombia is a nation that starts moving it never gets. It isn't acquainted with it since it has moved all around the globe. Help associations have given nourishment, safe house, childcare, and medical and legitimate administrations to showing up Venezuelans yet have battled to keep pace with the extent of those looking for help. Since getting to work in August of 2018 President Iván Duque has called over and over for universal help for Colombia on the less-than-desirable finish of the mass migration.

Since the start of the swell of relocation, the Colombian government's open position has likewise been inviting to migrants. A little more than 50 percent of Venezuelans in the nation have standard transient status. With 80 percent holding a unique impermanent grant, the other 47 percent have moved sporadically. The worry for the Venezuelan government is that many are leaving the country because of insufficient therapeutic consideration from the hospitals lacking fundamental prescriptions and supplies. This populace incorporates pregnant ladies, who cross into Colombia for pre-birth care and to bring forth their infants a normal of 625 births are recorded every month. A portion of these kids, in danger of being stateless, were as of late allowed Colombian citizenship.

Training is extremely decentralized in Colombia; the national government must facilitate its reaction with civic chairmen and governors to give those social administrations. The national government made 30 neighborhood working gatherings to guarantee nearby specialists are locked in a procedure that will be entangled this fall as Colombia holds neighborhood decisions and these positions will turn over.

In spite of these weights, Colombia keeps on surveying support for Venezuelans as an ethical objective. This is to some degree because of appreciation felt for the Colombians taken in by Venezuela during Colombia's decades-long considerate war, with the administration saying it will keep the outskirt open and not force visa limitations for passage as some different nations have. The call for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to leave office as he reafferent his pledge to help those relocating. The system has brutalized the residents of Venezuela. It is an ethical obligation to decry and do whatever is required of the autocracy to reach a conclusion. This shouldn't be up for a geopolitical discussion. This is not a contest between world forces. It essentially common sense.

Conclusion

Finally, it may be concluded Iván Duque Márquez should stop Venezuela refugees from coming over the border due to Colombian citizens becoming jobless, crimes increasing, and the lack of education for the children. It is valuable for him to very viable to him to worry about his country. Venezuela’s refugee crisis is affecting Colombia and the citizens of this country. Colombia is one of the countries that has kept their borders open since the depression has started with Venezuela. It has taken a toll on Colombia. Colombia has gone through their tough times and flew to Venezuela when they were in turmoil. Sometimes the back and forth has to stop, someone has to put an end to the drugs and the poverty and the hurt that is causing the fellow citizens of its country. The president has done more than enough to help Venezuela now is the time for someone to take a stand and say enough is enough. Could you imagine being in your country congested? Over 50 million people in your country causing chaos, fighting one another, and scrambling for food due to the foot-and-mouth disease. Not being able to provide for your family because some other refugees have come over and took over your jobs for chump change. Your child not able to receive adequate education due to refugees coming over and increasing the population in schools which has drove your child’s teacher to flee. If you could not imagine this happening to your family, then why not put an end to the overpopulation and stop the refugees from entering and just worry about Colombia.

Works Cited

1. Budden, Provash. 'It's time for the world to stand with Venezuelan refugees.' Washingtonpost.com, 20 June 2018. Gale In Context: Global Issues, https://link-gale-com.proxy078.nclive.org/apps/doc/A543753038/GIC?u=nclivegtcc&sid=GIC&xid=418be9d1. Accessed 6 Feb. 2020.
2. 'Colombia.' Gale Global Issues Online Collection, Gale, 2019. Gale In Context: Global Issues, https://linkgalecom.proxy078.nclive.org/apps/doc/CP3208530035/GIC?u=nclivegtcc&sid=GIC&xid=a9322de4. Accessed 22 Jan. 2020.
3. 'Colombia Media Highlights 4 October 2018.' BBC Monitoring Americas, Oct 04, 2018. ProQuest, https://login.proxy078.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/2116132116?accountid=11099. Accessed 6 February 2020.
4. Glazer, Sarah. 'Global Migration.' CQ Researcher, 17 Jan. 2020, pp. 1-57, library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2020011700. Accessed 22 Jan. 2020.
5. 'Venezuela.' Gale Global Issues Online Collection, Gale, 2019. Gale In Context: Global Issues, https://link-gale.com.proxy078.nclive.org/apps/doc/CP3208530190/GIC?u=nclivegtcc&sid=GIC&xid=b598f69c. Accessed 6 Feb. 2020.