The international community this Friday in Brussels pledged 807 million euros in humanitarian aid to Venezuelan refugees and migrants and also to support the countries, particularly neighboring countries, that are caring for them, EU Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic announced has.
The amount, of which the European Commission will contribute more than 75 million euros – the rest are funds to be pledged individually by the participating countries – was revealed at the end of the Third International Conference in Solidarity with Venezuelan Refugees and Migrants, two-day conference in Brussels with the declared aim not to let up in the face of one of the biggest humanitarian crises in the world. Spain will contribute more than 20 million euros, while Canada, co-organizer of the event in the Belgian capital, will contribute another 40 million and the United States up to 160 million euros, reports Efe.
With more than 7 million Venezuelans forced to leave their country, 90% of whom have been hosted in countries in the region, Venezuela “is one of the biggest displacement crises in the world, along with Ukraine and Syria,” the Canadian Minister for International Affairs reminded Development, Harjit Singh Sajjan, co-organizer with the European Commission of the event, the ministers and senior officials from the region, as well as international organizations such as the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) or the International Organization for Migration. Nevertheless, the Venezuelan crisis is “one of the ten worst financed humanitarian crises in the world,” said the EU Commissioner.
For this reason, the meeting sought not only to provide much-needed assistance to both the displaced and some host countries, where the massive arrival of migrants and refugees is adding a burden that is sometimes difficult for already strained economies and societies to bear show that “we have not forgotten this ongoing crisis,” emphasized Lenarcic. “The most important thing is to keep the visibility of this crisis, to show that we have not forgotten the humanitarian needs,” he stressed.
Of the promised aid, 496 million were grants and 311 million were loans, Lenarcic explained at the end of the meeting. According to Brussels, the funds will be used, among other things, to finance projects in the areas of “food aid, health, housing, protection, education and legal aid”. The amounts will be split according to “each individual case,” Lenarcic said at a press conference at the Commission’s headquarters in the Belgian capital.
Since 2016, the EU has provided nearly €400 million in humanitarian aid to the crisis in Venezuela, distributed through the Red Cross and international NGOs both within the South American country and in support of displaced migrants and refugees in neighboring countries.
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Although the Brussels conference focused on the humanitarian crisis, the specter of a political crisis hung over the entire event. According to Commissioner Lenarcic, “the only effective solution” is through a “process led by the Venezuelans themselves,” for which he said he “welcomes” the resumption of negotiations between Nicolás Maduro’s government and the opposition in Mexico. “We also welcome the agreement in principle on humanitarian issues and hope that this process will continue and a political solution will be reached,” he said at a press conference. A “very important milestone” in this sense, he stressed, is “the organization of the presidential elections” next year, something that the EU “will follow very closely”, he added.
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