Summit of the Americas: leaders close pact on migrants and refugees

This Friday at Summit of the Americasthe president of USA, Joe Biden, and other Western Hemisphere leaders will present what is billed as a roadmap for countries receiving large numbers of migrants and refugees.

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The “Los Angeles Declaration” is perhaps the greatest achievement of the Summit of the Americas, which has been hit by the differences aroused by the list of leaders invited by Biden. The delegations of Mexico and from several Central American nations were led by their main diplomatic representatives after their leaders refused to participate in an event from which Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela were excluded.

Principles to be announced on the last day of the summit include legal pathways to enter countries, aid to communities most affected by migration, humane border management and coordinated emergency responses, according to a senior official. American who briefed reporters before the official announcement.

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It is a model that Colombia and Ecuadorwhose conservative leaders received a warm welcome at the summit for hosting much of the six million people who have fled Venezuela in recent years.

The president of Ecuador, William Lasso, announced last week a temporary status for Venezuelans who are in their country, about 500,000. In a panel parallel to the Summit he said on Tuesday that his country was repaying the generosity of Spain and the United States for having welcomed a large number of Ecuadorians who fled more than two decades ago.

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On the other hand, the president Ivan Dukeof Colombiareceived a standing ovation Thursday as he described how his government had granted temporary status to one million Venezuelans in the last 14 months and is processing another 800,000 applications.

“We did it out of conviction”, Duque told The Associated Press, explaining that they could not be indifferent to the Venezuelans who had lost their homes and everything they had. He said that he knew that the measure could represent him at a political cost. “They were invisible, they couldn’t open an account, they couldn’t work, they couldn’t enter the health system. They were practically like a community with no future.”.

Although the measures were not widely popular, Venezuelans have assimilated without major inconvenience.

“The two most dangerous phenomena are xenophobia and indifference and I believe that we have managed to overcome both. Today there is a majority feeling of the population to respect this fraternal measure”Duke said.

The United States has been the most popular destination for asylum seekers since 2017, posing significant challenges for Biden and his two immediate predecessors, Donald Trump and Barack Obama.

But Washington is not alone in this: Colombia and its neighbors are home to the millions of Venezuelans who left their country; Mexico received more than 130,000 asylum applications last year, many from Haitians, triple the number in 2020: many Nicaraguans flee to Costa Rica and displaced Venezuelans make up almost a sixth of the population of tiny Aruba.

Internal Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday that the Summit declaration recognizes the magnitude of regional migration.

“This is a hemispheric challenge”, he expressed in an interview, highlighting Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica for receiving a large number of migrants.

The responses from Colombia and Ecuador cannot be copied identically, said José Samaniego, director for the Americas at the United Nations refugee agency. Each country is different and migration from Central America is more complicated than that from Venezuela.

“You have to be inspired by good practicesSamaniego said. “There is no way to replicate”.

Source: Elcomercio

Ronald Payne

I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.