Colombia is on the front lines of the largest migrant crisis in the history of the Western Hemisphere. NGOs and the government are scrambling to meet the needs of over 4 million migrants who have left their homes in search of the very basics—food, medicine, and safety. "Caught Between" examines the experience of Venezuelan refugees trying to maintain their basic human rights in an unfamiliar country.
In summer 2019, the Organization of American States projected that 7.5 million Venezuelans will have left their country by the year 2020, surpassing the number who have fled Syria. Some Venezuelans leave with hopes of settling in distant Latin American countries such as Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. But for many, neighboring Colombia is as far as they go. Colombia is bearing the burden of caring for the most vulnerable of these refugees, from providing health care, to food and clothing, to employment and housing. This demand is overwhelming, especially for a country still experiencing the impacts of its own internal armed conflict.
This project looks at how Venezuelan migrants who have left their country in search of a means of survival are able to find the resources they need in Colombia—or not.
Venezuelans are fleeing their country to escape hunger, poverty, violence, corruption, and a lack of health care and medicine. What happens after they've left?
