The United Nations Refugee Agency warned since 1.3 million Venezuelans have settled in Colombia, there have been thousands of children born who are stuck in legal limbo with no identity documents, which puts them at risk of statelessness on Thursday, according to The Japan Times.
Some 3.7 million people have left Venezuela, including 3 million since 2015 as the country endured a political and economic crisis in their home country causing widespread shortages of food and medicine and hyperinflation.
There have also been massive anti-government street protests which turned deadly, so many have fled due to the variety of threats.
The Colombian government said nearly 20,000 children of Venezuelan parents have been born after they fled Venezuela for Colombia, but many had to flee without proper documents so they are not eligible for either nationality.
Juan Ignacio Mondelli, UNHCR’s senior regional protection officer, said Colombia was committed to addressing the problem, but there was a need to develop an identification marker for children who are at risk of becoming stateless or already are.
“The recommendation we have is that whatever the path the (Colombian) authorities choose to follow be it a law, a decree .. is that a mechanism is planned that allows the cases currently registered to be resolved,” Mondelli said to Reuters. “That this changes from being a problem about nationality to a problem about documentation."
The UNHCR said earlier this week the Venezuelans fleeing their country deserve protection and recognition as refugees and called on other states not to deport them back to Venezuela.
The UNHCR's spokeswoman Liz Throssell warned there were still 3,000 to 5,000 Venezuelans leaving the country every day, and "the majority of those fleeing the country are in need of international refugee protection. It is incredibly important given the situation in Venezuela that there aren’t deportations, expulsions or forced returns.”
Only 460,000 Venezuelans had sought formal asylum as of the end of 2018, predominantly in Peru, Brazil, Spain, and the United States.
While thousands more have special visas to stay in Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile.
Stateless people are often unable to receive healthcare, education, travel, open a bank account, own a home, and more since they are not recognized as nationals by any country.
The UN has previously estimated up to 10 million people are stateless around the world.
The children born in Colombia are not immediately granted citizenship to Colombia since the constitution requires children to have at least one parent who is Colombian in order to obtain citizenship.
There have been 3,300 children born in Colombia to Venezuelan parents since late 2017 which have birth certificates from the National Civil Registry which say: “Not valid to show nationality.”
Venezuelans are unable to obtain citizenship from their home country in Colombia since President Nicolas Maduro cut off diplomatic relations with the neighboring country in February after it joined with dozens of other nations to support opposition leader and self-declared interim president Juan Guaido.
Colombian congress is considering three bills that would address the legal limbo of those children, including one which would have the children born in the country to undocumented Venezuelan parents to opportunity to obtain citizenship.
Colombia has already been working with global health organizations to provide free emergency healthcare and vaccines to migrant children, both born in and outside of Colombia, with many more Venezuelan children crossing the border to attend school in Colombia.
-WN.com, Maureen Foody
Photo:
AP / Martin Mejia
