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, according to Reuters. Kuczysnki, a centrist, has expressed concern about shortages of food and medicine in Venezuela, mired in a deep economic crisis.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Silicon Alley Insider. </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. </s> TODAY VENEZUELA (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, according to Reuters.

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 US government, which is traditionally an ally of Peru.

US 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 US-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.

Thousands of Venezuelans have left their country in recent years, as a deepening political crisis and ongoing economic dysfunction have made life there ever harder.

While the first years of this century saw Venezuela elites and educated classes depart the country, chaffing under the presidency of Hugo Chavez, since 2010 younger Venezuelans and members of the middle class have joined the ranks of the exodus.

Many Venezuelans have relocated to Colombia, and a significant number have gone to Chile, making an arduous multiday trek by bus and boat across the Amazon jungle and the mountains and rivers of the Andes.

Over the last five years, Chilean visas issued to Venezuelans have jumped from 758 to 8,381, Univision reported in September 2016.

About 5% of Venezuelan’s roughly 30 million people are thought to have left, and the outflux has undergone a “feminization” of late, seeing 67 men leave for every 100 women departing.

“I think what you see now is that there are fewer and fewer educated professionals, younger people, who are opting to stay, or even considering opting to stay,” Alejandro Velasco, a professor at New York University, told Business Insider late last year.

“The tipping point basically, I think, has been reached where opportunities outside [the country] are far easier to come by and certainly better to imagine that opportunities inside.”

Article originally appeared on Today Venezuela and is republished here with permission. </s> A Venezuelan migrant carrying her son, stands on the Pan-American Highway outside an immigration office in an attempt to cross from Ecuador into Peru moments after stricter entry requirements went into effect, in Tumbes, Peru, Saturday, June 15, 2019. With its relatively stable economy and flexible immigration laws, Peru has become a main destination for millions of Venezuelans escaping hyperinflation, medical shortages and political repression at home. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

AGUAS VERDES, Peru (AP) — Dozens of riot police stood guard at Peru’s northern border on Saturday, hours after new entry measures requiring Venezuelan migrants to hold a passport and humanitarian visa took effect.

More than 9,000 Venezuelans entered the country with just their national ID cards on Friday, the highest number ever recorded by Peruvian immigration authorities.

Peru’s Foreign Minister Néstor Popolizio told the radio station RPP on Saturday that the mandatory humanitarian visa for migrants was a “beneficial” measure that would help Venezuelans obtain permission to work legally for 183 days.

He said that some exceptions would still be allowed for “minors who only have birth certificates and are in transit to Peru to meet up with their parents, adults in transit to meet their families, adults in extremely vulnerable positions and the elderly.”

He also acknowledged that securing a passport in Venezuela is difficult, but said that “the majority” already enter with such a document.

According to Peruvian authorities, more than 820,000 Venezuelans have settled in Peru since 2016 of which 270,000 have sought refugee status.

Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra has said the new entry requirements will make immigration “safer and more orderly” and that the large influx of Venezuelan immigrants was making it harder for Peruvians to find jobs.

But human rights groups in the country have criticized the move, describing it as an attempt to lessen the numbers of needy people who are entering.

Stephanía Robles and her five-year-old son were two of the last migrants to come into the Andean country with just their IDs on Saturday.

“(I came) to look for a better life, my husband is in Peru in the city of Trujillo. My sisters are in Lima,” the 30-year-old said. </s> LIMA (Reuters) - Peru’s president on Thursday vowed to continue deporting Venezuelans with criminal records as long as necessary, part of a tougher stance toward Venezuelan migrants in the region as they continue to flee their crisis-stricken homeland in mass.

The government of centrist President Martin Vizcarra started deporting groups of Venezuelans with criminal records in April, when a local opinion poll showed an increasingly negative perception of the migrants, mainly due to fears about crime.

Speaking to journalists while a third group of about 50 Venezuelans were escorted onto a plane, Vizcarra said the expulsions were only the beginning.

“We’re going to continue,” Vizcarra said at the airport in Lima. “500, 800, 1,000, 2,000 - whatever’s necessary. Those who have committed crimes will be expelled to their country.”

Peru was once one of the most welcoming countries for Venezuelan migrants. It granted hundreds of thousands of temporary residency permits to Venezuelans that let them work legally and access health and education services.

But last year, after more than half a million desperate Venezuelans fled to Peru, the government tightened entry requirements for the migrants and ended the residency program earlier than planned.

Peru’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that starting June 15, Venezuelan migrants will be required to obtain a humanitarian visa from Peruvian consulates in Venezuela - and in special cases from consulates in Colombia or Ecuador.

The ministry did not say it would change its policy toward Venezuelans seeking refugee status, who are not generally required to present visas or passports. Peru has said the vast majority of Venezuelans who apply for exile do not qualify.

Peru, which has a population of 32 million, has the second-biggest population of Venezuelan migrants after Colombia. Nearly 800,000 Venezuelans are now in Peru.

Some 3 million Venezuelans have left their homeland since 2015, seeking to escape an economic crisis that has deprived many of basic foods and medicine, according to a U.N. estimate. A further 2 million are expected to emigrate this year.

Most Venezuelan migrants have ended up in other South American countries, straining public services in developing nations unaccustomed to absorbing large migratory waves and fueling a backlash in some places.

Vizcarra said his government would continue to push hard for a transition to democracy in Venezuela, which he described as the only way to solve the migratory crisis. </s> SANTIAGO — Venezuelans seeking refuge in Chile can request a “democratic responsibility visa” at any Chilean consulate in the world, and not just in their homeland where the visa has been available until now, Chile’s foreign ministry said on Saturday.

The visa can be requested as of Monday. It will allow Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-hit country to stay in Chile for one year, and can be extended for an additional 12 months, a statement posted on the ministry’s website said.

“We have instructed that all Chilean consulates in the world also begin to be able to offer visas of democratic responsibility,” Chilean Foreign Minister Teodoro Ribera was quoted as saying in local press reports on Saturday.

The minister added that for Chile the “real solution” would be for “the rule of law be restored” in Venezuela. Chile is part of the 12-nation Lima Group of Western states pushing for the resignation of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro. Opponents accuse Maduro, a socialist, of being a dictator.

Venezuela’s economic collapse has unleashed the biggest migratory crisis in recent South American history.

This week about 200 migrants, the vast majority Venezuelans, were stranded on the border between Peru and Chile trying to enter Chilean territory after a change of regulations in Peru slowed their movement. (Reporting by Natalia Ramos Writing by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Tom Brown) </s> LIMA (Reuters) - Peru on Tuesday declared a health emergency at its northern border as thousands of Venezuelans, fleeing economic crisis and hunger at home, continued to stream into the country despite tightening entry requirements.

In a decree published in the government’s official gazette, Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra declared a 60-day emergency in two provinces on Peru’s northern border, citing “imminent danger” to health and sanitation due to immigration. It did not give more details on the risks.

The exodus of Venezuelans to other South American countries is building toward a “crisis moment” comparable to events involving refugees in the Mediterranean, the United Nations said this week.

Health authorities in Peru have previously expressed concerns about the spread of diseases such as measles and malaria from the migrants, many of whom lacked access to basic medicine and health care in their homeland.

Brazil said earlier this month that the migration wave had sparked measles outbreaks in neighboring countries, including in Brazil where the disease had been considered eradicated.

Top immigration officials from Peru, Colombia and Brazil have been meeting in Colombian capital Bogota for a two day summit to discuss how to cope with the influx of migrants.

There are close to 1 million Venezuelans now living in Colombia and more than 400,000 in Peru, the countries said in a joint statement on Tuesday after the meeting. Just 178,000 of those in Peru have legal permission to stay or are being processed.

Colombia and Peru will share information about migrants in a database, in an effort to track arrivals and fairly distribute aid, the two countries said. The countries invited others affected by Venezuelan migration to join the initiative.

This month, Peru and Ecuador began requiring passports instead of national ID cards from Venezuelan migrants. Peru has also tightened deadlines for Venezuelans to sign up for a temporary residency card that lets them work in the country legally.

On Saturday, the first day Peru imposed its passport rule, the number of Venezuelan migrants entering the country fell by more than half to 1,630, according to Peru’s immigration agency. But hundreds more without passports entered the country by seeking asylum.

Foreign ministers from Ecuador and Colombia, and possibly Peru and Brazil, will meet to discuss Venezuelan migration in Ecuador next week, said Christian Kruger, the head of Colombia’s migration agency.

Peru has also called for a meeting at the Organization for American States and the United Nations to discuss the topic, Peru’s foreign minister has said. </s> LIMA, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Peru on Tuesday declared a health emergency at its northern border as thousands of Venezuelans, fleeing economic crisis and hunger at home, continued to stream into the country despite tightening entry requirements.

In a decree published in the government's official gazette, Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra declared a 60-day emergency in two provinces on Peru's northern border, citing "imminent danger" to health and sanitation due to immigration. It did not give more details on the risks.

The exodus of Venezuelans to other South American countries is building toward a "crisis moment" comparable to events involving refugees in the Mediterranean, the United Nations said this week.

Health authorities in Peru have previously expressed concerns about the spread of diseases such as measles and malaria from the migrants, many of whom lacked access to basic medicine and health care in their homeland.

Brazil said earlier this month that the migration wave had sparked measles outbreaks in neighboring countries, including in Brazil where the disease had been considered eradicated.

Top immigration officials from Peru, Colombia and Brazil have been meeting in Colombian capital Bogota for a two day summit to discuss how to cope with the influx of migrants.

There are close to 1 million Venezuelans now living in Colombia and more than 400,000 in Peru, the countries said in a joint statement on Tuesday after the meeting. Just 178,000 of those in Peru have legal permission to stay or are being processed.

Colombia and Peru will share information about migrants in a database, in an effort to track arrivals and fairly distribute aid, the two countries said. The countries invited others affected by Venezuelan migration to join the initiative.

This month, Peru and Ecuador began requiring passports instead of national ID cards from Venezuelan migrants. Peru has also tightened deadlines for Venezuelans to sign up for a temporary residency card that lets them work in the country legally.

On Saturday, the first day Peru imposed its passport rule, the number of Venezuelan migrants entering the country fell by more than half to 1,630, according to Peru's immigration agency. But hundreds more without passports entered the country by seeking asylum.

Foreign ministers from Ecuador and Colombia, and possibly Peru and Brazil, will meet to discuss Venezuelan migration in Ecuador next week, said Christian Kruger, the head of Colombia's migration agency.

Peru has also called for a meeting at the Organization for American States and the United Nations to discuss the topic, Peru's foreign minister has said. </s> SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Venezuelans seeking refuge in Chile can request a “democratic responsibility visa” at any Chilean consulate in the world, and not just in their homeland where the visa has been available until now, Chile’s foreign ministry said on Saturday.

The visa can be requested as of Monday. It will allow Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-hit country to stay in Chile for one year, and can be extended for an additional 12 months, a statement posted on the ministry’s website said.

“We have instructed that all Chilean consulates in the world also begin to be able to offer visas of democratic responsibility,” Chilean Foreign Minister Teodoro Ribera was quoted as saying in local press reports on Saturday.

The minister added that for Chile the “real solution” would be for “the rule of law be restored” in Venezuela. Chile is part of the 12-nation Lima Group of Western states pushing for the resignation of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro. Opponents accuse Maduro, a socialist, of being a dictator.

In another policy change, the interior ministry announced that Chile will immediately start requiring tourist visas for Venezuelan visitors who plan to stay in the country for short periods. Previously, Venezuelans could arrive without tourist visas and stay for 90 days.

Venezuela’s economic collapse has unleashed the biggest migratory crisis in recent South American history.

This week about 200 migrants, the vast majority Venezuelans, were stranded on the border between Peru and Chile trying to enter Chilean territory after a change of regulations in Peru slowed their movement.
Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's government creates a temporary visa for thousands of Venezuelans whose country is mired in a deep economic crisis. Visa holders will be able to study, work, and receive health services in Peru for a year. "This is part of our migratory policy that aims to build bridges not walls", says Interior Minister Carlos Basombrio.