Colombia and Peru have agreed to build a joint database to share information and better address the flood of Venezuelan immigrants fleeing violence and a crumbling economy.

The countries, along with Brazil and Ecuador, met in the Colombian capital Bogota this week to discuss the issues each country faced with the wave of refugees that is only likely to increase in the coming months.

“We are sure that the solution is to not close the borders, since that in encouraging the irregularities,” said Christian Kruger, Colombia’s immigration director.

The proposed would better track crisis that has been felt throughout South America and better document details about the refugees’ locations, health, education and what services they have accessed, according to press release by Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Relations.

By doing so, the statement said, it will allow the countries to better construct polices regarding the immigration, work, safety, health and education of those migrants.

More than 1.6 million Venezuelans have fled their country since 2015, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and thousands more pour over the border each day.

In Colombia, the government has reported around 1 million Venezuelans who have settled across the nation. Peruvian officials say there are more than 400,000 living in the nation.

As the two countries continue talks of the database, they have extended an invitation to other governments in the regions to join them in their effort.

“We must, from the sovereignty of each country, search for strategies that allow us to provide attention and identify these migratory flows and most importantly, to make them an active part of society,” Kruger said.

Colombia and Peru to build joint database on fleeing Venezuelans was last modified: by </s> By The Associated Press

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Immigration authorities in Colombia and Peru are vowing to build a joint database to share information on the rapidly rising number of Venezuelans fleeing their nation’s crippling economic and humanitarian crisis.

Officials announced the plan Tuesday following a two-day regional meeting aimed at developing a unified response to the exodus.

The United Nations estimates 2.3 million Venezuelans have fled since 2014, the majority of them going to Colombia or Peru.

Over 1 million Venezuelans have arrived in Colombia in less than two years, while officials in Peru say there are more than 400,000 living in the nation.

Colombia immigration director Christian Kruger said the database will allow nations to share information on topics like immigration status, health care and security. He hopes other nations including Ecuador will join.

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. </s> Officials from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru will meet in Bogota next week to seek a solution to a growing exodus of migrants overwhelming South American countries as they flee a devastating economic crisis in Venezuela.

The head of Colombia's migration authority, Christian Kruger, said in a statement on Thursday the three nations would meet on Monday and Tuesday to discuss problems caused by thousands of Venezuelans who cross borders each day and the impact of recently implemented passport controls by Peru and Ecuador.

"The exodus of Venezuelan citizens is not a problem exclusive to Colombia, Peru, Ecuador or a single country. This is a regional problem and as such we must address it," Kruger said.

In the past two weeks, both Ecuador and Peru have announced tighter entry rules for Venezuelans, requiring them to carry valid passports instead of just national ID cards. In Brazil, rioters drove hundreds of migrants back over the border.

Venezuela's Information Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Peru's foreign minister said on Tuesday that Lima was calling for a meeting of the permanent council of the Organization of American States to discuss Venezuelan migration.

More than a million Venezuelan migrants have entered Colombia over the past 15 months, according to official estimates, but Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Brazil have also received many migrants.

The statement said the new passport measures had cut the number of Venezuelans crossing legally through passport controls in Colombia but increased the number crossing borders illegally.

"Demanding passports from a nation that does not have them and whose government does not facilitate the issuance of this document is to encourage irregularity," Kruger said.

Over the past two years, many Venezuelans have struggled to obtain passports amid the OPEC nation’s political and economic chaos.

A growing wave of migrants has inundated border towns and flooded some Latin American job markets with low-skilled Venezuelans desperate for work in order to send money back to their homeland.

With the International Monetary Fund forecasting that Venezuela’s inflation could reach 1 million percent by year's end, malnutrition is on the rise, as a monthly minimum wage that amounts to a few U.S. dollars puts basic products like chicken out of reach for many. </s> BOGOTA (Reuters) - Officials from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru will meet in Bogota next week to seek a solution to a growing exodus of migrants overwhelming South American countries as they flee a devastating economic crisis in Venezuela.

The head of Colombia’s migration authority, Christian Kruger, said in a statement on Thursday the three nations would meet on Monday and Tuesday to discuss problems caused by thousands of Venezuelans who cross borders each day and the impact of recently implemented passport controls by Peru and Ecuador.

“The exodus of Venezuelan citizens is not a problem exclusive to Colombia, Peru, Ecuador or a single country. This is a regional problem and as such we must address it,” Kruger said.

In the past two weeks, both Ecuador and Peru have announced tighter entry rules for Venezuelans, requiring them to carry valid passports instead of just national ID cards. In Brazil, rioters drove hundreds of migrants back over the border.

Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Peru’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that Lima was calling for a meeting of the permanent council of the Organization of American States to discuss Venezuelan migration.

More than a million Venezuelan migrants have entered Colombia over the past 15 months, according to official estimates, but Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Brazil have also received many migrants.

The statement said the new passport measures had cut the number of Venezuelans crossing legally through passport controls in Colombia but increased the number crossing borders illegally.

“Demanding passports from a nation that does not have them and whose government does not facilitate the issuance of this document is to encourage irregularity,” Kruger said.

Over the past two years, many Venezuelans have struggled to obtain passports amid the OPEC nation’s political and economic chaos.

A growing wave of migrants has inundated border towns and flooded some Latin American job markets with low-skilled Venezuelans desperate for work in order to send money back to their homeland.

With the International Monetary Fund forecasting that Venezuela’s inflation could reach 1 million percent by year’s end, malnutrition is on the rise, as a monthly minimum wage that amounts to a few U.S. dollars puts basic products like chicken out of reach for many. </s> BOGOTA (Reuters) - Officials from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru will meet in Bogota next week to seek a solution to a growing exodus of migrants overwhelming South American countries as they flee a devastating economic crisis in Venezuela.

Venezuelan migrant Jhan Carlos Rivas hugs his wife Maiquerina Vasquez as they arrive from the northern city of Tumbes, at the border with Ecuador, to the bus terminal in Lima, Peru August 23, 2018. REUTERS/Guadalupe Pardo

The head of Colombia’s migration authority, Christian Kruger, said in a statement on Thursday the three nations would meet on Monday and Tuesday to discuss problems caused by thousands of Venezuelans who cross borders each day and the impact of recently implemented passport controls by Peru and Ecuador.

“The exodus of Venezuelan citizens is not a problem exclusive to Colombia, Peru, Ecuador or a single country. This is a regional problem and as such we must address it,” Kruger said.

In the past two weeks, both Ecuador and Peru have announced tighter entry rules for Venezuelans, requiring them to carry valid passports instead of just national ID cards. In Brazil, rioters drove hundreds of migrants back over the border.

Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Peru’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that Lima was calling for a meeting of the permanent council of the Organization of American States to discuss Venezuelan migration.

More than a million Venezuelan migrants have entered Colombia over the past 15 months, according to official estimates, but Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Brazil have also received many migrants.

The statement said the new passport measures had cut the number of Venezuelans crossing legally through passport controls in Colombia but increased the number crossing borders illegally.

“Demanding passports from a nation that does not have them and whose government does not facilitate the issuance of this document is to encourage irregularity,” Kruger said.

Over the past two years, many Venezuelans have struggled to obtain passports amid the OPEC nation’s political and economic chaos.

A growing wave of migrants has inundated border towns and flooded some Latin American job markets with low-skilled Venezuelans desperate for work in order to send money back to their homeland.

With the International Monetary Fund forecasting that Venezuela’s inflation could reach 1 million percent by year’s end, malnutrition is on the rise, as a monthly minimum wage that amounts to a few U.S. dollars puts basic products like chicken out of reach for many. </s> BOGOTA (Reuters) - Officials from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru will meet in Bogota next week to seek a solution to a growing exodus of migrants overwhelming South American countries as they flee a devastating economic crisis in Venezuela.

The head of Colombia's migration authority, Christian Kruger, said in a statement on Thursday the three nations would meet on Monday and Tuesday to discuss problems caused by thousands of Venezuelans who cross borders each day and the impact of recently implemented passport controls by Peru and Ecuador.

"The exodus of Venezuelan citizens is not a problem exclusive to Colombia, Peru, Ecuador or a single country. This is a regional problem and as such we must address it," Kruger said.

In the past two weeks, both Ecuador and Peru have announced tighter entry rules for Venezuelans, requiring them to carry valid passports instead of just national ID cards. In Brazil, rioters drove hundreds of migrants back over the border.

Venezuela's Information Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Peru's foreign minister said on Tuesday that Lima was calling for a meeting of the permanent council of the Organization of American States to discuss Venezuelan migration.

More than a million Venezuelan migrants have entered Colombia over the past 15 months, according to official estimates, but Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Brazil have also received many migrants.

The statement said the new passport measures had cut the number of Venezuelans crossing legally through passport controls in Colombia but increased the number crossing borders illegally.

"Demanding passports from a nation that does not have them and whose government does not facilitate the issuance of this document is to encourage irregularity," Kruger said.

Over the past two years, many Venezuelans have struggled to obtain passports amid the OPEC nation's political and economic chaos.

A growing wave of migrants has inundated border towns and flooded some Latin American job markets with low-skilled Venezuelans desperate for work in order to send money back to their homeland.

With the International Monetary Fund forecasting that Venezuela's inflation could reach 1 million percent by year's end, malnutrition is on the rise, as a monthly minimum wage that amounts to a few U.S. dollars puts basic products like chicken out of reach for many.

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. </s> BOGOTA, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Officials from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru will meet in Bogota next week to seek a solution to a growing exodus of migrants overwhelming South American countries as they flee a devastating economic crisis in Venezuela.

The head of Colombia's migration authority, Christian Kruger, said in a statement on Thursday the three nations would meet on Monday and Tuesday to discuss problems caused by thousands of Venezuelans who cross borders each day and the impact of recently implemented passport controls by Peru and Ecuador.

"The exodus of Venezuelan citizens is not a problem exclusive to Colombia, Peru, Ecuador or a single country. This is a regional problem and as such we must address it," Kruger said.

In the past two weeks, both Ecuador and Peru have announced tighter entry rules for Venezuelans, requiring them to carry valid passports instead of just national ID cards. In Brazil, rioters drove hundreds of migrants back over the border.

Venezuela's Information Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Peru's foreign minister said on Tuesday that Lima was calling for a meeting of the permanent council of the Organization of American States to discuss Venezuelan migration.

More than a million Venezuelan migrants have entered Colombia over the past 15 months, according to official estimates, but Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Brazil have also received many migrants.

The statement said the new passport measures had cut the number of Venezuelans crossing legally through passport controls in Colombia but increased the number crossing borders illegally.

"Demanding passports from a nation that does not have them and whose government does not facilitate the issuance of this document is to encourage irregularity," Kruger said.

Over the past two years, many Venezuelans have struggled to obtain passports amid the OPEC nation's political and economic chaos.

A growing wave of migrants has inundated border towns and flooded some Latin American job markets with low-skilled Venezuelans desperate for work in order to send money back to their homeland.

With the International Monetary Fund forecasting that Venezuela's inflation could reach 1 million percent by year's end, malnutrition is on the rise, as a monthly minimum wage that amounts to a few U.S. dollars puts basic products like chicken out of reach for many. (Reporting by Helen Murphy; Additional reporting by Brian Ellsworth in Caracas and Mitra Taj in Lima; Editing by Peter Cooney) </s> LIMA, (Reuters) – Colombia, Peru and Ecuador want more international aid to help manage a surge in Venezuelan migration that is overwhelming public services in those countries, a Peruvian official said on Thursday.

“Support has been given and we value it, but it has to increase in line with increasing migration,” said Cesar Bustamante, an official at Peru’s foreign ministry who met with representatives of Colombia and Ecuador on Wednesday in Lima.

“More demand for public services means more resources. There’s no way around it. We have to provide those services, with our own resources or with international help,” he said in a telephone interview.

Bustamante said developed countries should do more to support United Nations programs that are assisting migrants in South America and should offer funds to countries hosting them.

Colombia, Peru and Ecuador have accepted hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans fleeing an economic meltdown, growing poverty and food and medical shortages at home.

The United Nations has said that more than 1.6 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2015 in one of the largest mass migrations in Latin American history.

In Peru, Venezuelans receive attention at state-funded health clinics and attend public schools, and the government’s immigration agency is processing residency requests around the clock.

Last week, United Nations’ agencies dealing with migration and refugees called for more help for host countries to handle a crisis it said was approaching a level comparable to the influx of refugees in the Mediterranean.

On Thursday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who is on a four-nation Latin American tour, said in Bogota that the European Union would give Latin America 35 million euros to help with the migrant crisis.

The United States has given nearly $31 million in aid for Venezuelans since fiscal year 2017, as well as $18.5 million for Colombia, home to more Venezuelan migrants than any other country, the U.S. State Department has said.

However, the United States has not eased its immigration policy to accommodate more Venezuelans, underscoring new challenges in the developing world as U.S. President Donald Trump shifts the burden of hosting desperate migrants and refugees to places with less capacity to absorb them.

Last week, Peru’s foreign minister said that he had spoken with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about funding needs.

Colombia, Peru, Ecuador discussed Venezuelan immigration in Lima on Wednesday at a gathering of the Andean Community, one of a number of regional meetings aimed at tackling migration issues.

In a joint statement, the three countries called on Caracas to facilitate passports for Venezuelan citizens to strengthen regional security. Bolivia, an ally of Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro, attended Wednesday’s meeting as the fourth member of the Andean Community, but it did not sign the joint statement.

Peru started requiring passports instead of national ID cards from Venezuelans on Saturday, following a similar decision by Ecuador.

Some 1,200 Venezuelans per day entered Peru after the new rule was implemented, down from 5,100 earlier this month, according to Peru’s immigration agency. The figure included migrants as well as aspiring refugees, who do not require passports for entry under international law. </s> Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski holds a news conference at the conclusion of the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Summit in Lima, Peru November 20, 2016. REUTERS/Paco Chuquiure

LIMA (Reuters) - Peru has created a temporary visa that will allow thousands of Venezuelans to work and study in the country, part of a migratory policy that aims to “build bridges” and “not walls,” the Andean nation’s interior ministry said.

President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s government issued 20 temporary visas to Venezuelan migrants in Peru this week. Kuczysnki, a centrist, has expressed concern about shortages of food and medicine in Venezuela, mired in a deep economic crisis.

Some 6,000 Venezuelans are expected to receive the permit, which will allow them to study, work and receive health services in Peru for a year, the interior ministry said late on Thursday.

Peru has enjoyed nearly two decades of uninterrupted economic growth and single-digit inflation, a sharp contrast to socialist-led Venezuela, where the ranks of the poor have swollen in recent years.

“We want to offer a different message on migration than what’s offered in other places. We want to build bridges that unite us and not walls to separate us,” Interior Minister Carlos Basombrio said in a statement.

The comment appeared to be a thinly veiled shot at the new U.S. government, which is traditionally an ally of Peru.

U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed a temporary entry ban on refugees and citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, and insisted that Mexico will pay for his proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to curb illegal immigration.

Kuczynski, a former Wall Street banker and free-trade advocate who took office last year, has previously compared Trump’s proposed border wall to the Berlin Wall, and said he would oppose it in the United Nations.

Kuczynski and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said last week that they would stand with Mexico and seek to strengthen regional trade, in the wake of rising tensions between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Trump.
Colombia announces that it will host a summit in Bogotá with migration officials from Peru and Ecuador in an attempt to seek a solution for the growing illegal immigration of Venezuelans through their nations.