Issue Brief Quito III: What Regional Governments Must Do to Help Displaced Venezuelans By Sarah Miller and Daphne Panayotatos APRIL 2019 million have fled Venezuela, and the global Introduction community is watching to see how the region responds. 1 Quito III must be a call to additional This stocktaking is meant to provide action and a renewed commitment to past recommendations to states participating in pledges. the Quito III meeting on April 8 and 9, 2019. It revisits what was discussed in the first two meetings of the Quito Process, which was established to foster a regional response to the Venezuelan displacement crisis by Background on the harmonizing the policies of affected states. Quito Process The Venezuelan displacement crisis has continued to grow during the first months In September 2018, the governments of of 2019. Political developments both inside Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Venezuelan and in host countries have Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and changed the situation considerably. For Uruguay met in Quito, Ecuador to exchange this reason, meetings like Quito III are even information and best practices regarding the more important. They serve as platforms for crisis of Venezuelan refugees and migrants discussion and debate, but also as places to in the region. The creation of the forum mobilize support, strategy, and alignment. reflected these states’ recognition that what they are facing is a regional crisis in need of Now in its fourth year, this is one of the regional solutions. Critically, it was designed to largest displacement crises in the world—3.4 specifically address this humanitarian situation 1. UNHCR, “Venezuelan Outflow Continues Unabated, Stands Now at 3.4 Million,” UNHCR-IOM Press Release, 22 February 2019. https://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2019/2/5c6fb2d04/venezuelan-outflow-continues-unabated-stands-34-million.html separate and apart from political questions increased challenges. Local government about Venezuela’s future.2 officials in areas with large numbers of Venezuelans cite a strain on basic services, The meeting led to the adoption of the including hospitals and schools. Many border Declaration of Quito on Human Mobility of crossings are not well equipped to process Venezuelan Citizens in the Region (“Quito or provide information to all Venezuelans that I”), which laid the foundations for a more arrive. coordinated response. After a subsequent meeting on November 22 and 23, 2018 Moreover, some countries that had mostly (“Quito II”), Argentina, Chile, Colombia, kept their borders open are introducing Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and more stringent requirements for entry. This Uruguay adopted a regional Plan of Action. move has forced desperate people to rely on Among other things, signatories to the smugglers, traffickers, and criminal groups to plan committed to facilitate the social and move across borders. Indeed, the unexpected economic integration of Venezuelans into host changes and resulting discrepancies among states. Importantly, this included meaningful states run directly counter to pledges made improvements in the process of granting legal at Quito to harmonize policies in order status to Venezuelans in their respective to facilitate movement. In addition, some countries. 3 communities that were initially welcoming to displaced Venezuelans are now showing growing resentment and tensions. Xenophobia is on the rise, and in some cases Events Since Quito II has resulted in acts of violence. Quito III is a collective opportunity for states to During 2018, an estimated 5,000 people per take stock of these developments and reaffirm day fled Venezuela. These flows continued in their commitment to a collective strategy for 2019 as the deteriorating economic and social responding to Venezuelan displacement in a situation in Venezuela led to even greater way that promotes human rights, humanitarian suffering and the political situation became principles, cooperation, security, and dignity considerably more complicated. Indeed, for all. the profile of those fleeing is increasingly desperate. The sick, elderly, and disabled, as well as lower-income individuals and families with small children are now a greater proportion of those leaving Venezuela. Broader Context As of February 2019, a total of 3.4 million Venezuelans had sought refuge outside their Compared to those in other refugee-hosting country.4 regions, Latin American countries responding to Venezuelan displacement have done Meanwhile, neighboring countries have seen relatively well. Recognizing that managing changes in their own domestic contexts. migration is both more effective and more Unsurprisingly, receiving countries are facing realistic than attempting to prevent it, most have adopted policies that allow some degree 2. A peaceful resolution of the political crisis in Venezuela is being addressed separately by the Lima Group, which was es- tablished following the Lima Declaration issued on August 8, 2017, and consists of many of the same states: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Saint Lucia. 3. See Appendix 1 for the text of the Declaration. 4. UNHCR, “Venezuelan Outflow Continues Unabated, Stands Now at 3.4 Million,” UNHCR-IOM Press Release, February 22, 2019. https://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2019/2/5c6fb2d04/venezuelan-outflow-continues-unabated-stands-34-million.html 2 | What Regional Governments Must Do to Help Displaced Venezuelans of freedom of movement, regularization, and displaced persons’ access to the formal labor right to work. While many Venezuelans do not market will reduce their reliance on aid, foster see themselves as refugees, a small number fuller integration into host communities, and of host states should also be applauded for boost local economies.8 applying the Cartagena Declaration’s broader definition of a refugee to some Venezuelans.5 In addition, host countries must also consider that the Venezuelans now fleeing their country However, rights and opportunities for have more acute needs. As noted above, Venezuelans sometimes exist only on paper— they are typically poorer and less educated, not in practice. Recent developments reveal and many are disabled, chronically ill, or the fragility of states’ generous responses. The elderly. Shelter and means of transportation region as a whole must reaffirm—and realize— for the many caminantes traveling on foot are commitments to ease entry requirements urgently needed. for Venezuelans, develop regularization procedures, create opportunities for economic As a result, in order to respond effectively, and social integration, and guarantee governments in host countries must introduce full access to rights and social services. immediate, intermediate, and long-term Coordinated efforts to stop trafficking and solutions simultaneously. This will require develop campaigns that combat gender-based more resources. Therefore, Quito participants violence and xenophobia will be important for should also put larger donor countries on this. At the same time, states must strengthen notice. They should pressure the international their asylum systems and agree to apply the community to keep its word enshrined in the Cartagena Declaration, in line with regional Global Compacts on Refugees and Migrants and national law.6 to share the responsibility for displacement crises. This is a prime opportunity for other Quito III participants should also think critically states to step up and assist the region with about the broader context. Venezuelan generous financial support. displacement is increasingly protracted and is largely urban in nature.7 Most Venezuelans Finally, states must follow through on the are not waiting in border areas to return priorities that they themselves identified home. Rather, they are moving onward to and committed to in the Declaration signed cities where they hope to find work. Enabling at Quito I and the regional Plan of Action 5. The 1984 Cartagena Declaration goes beyond the 1951 UN Refugee Convention in recognizing as refugees those individu- als who “have fled their country because their lives, safety or freedom have been threatened by generalized violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, massive violation of human rights or other circumstances which have seriously disturbed public order.” [“Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, Colloquium on the International Protection of Refugees in Central America, Mexico and Panama,” adopted November 22, 1984, https://www.oas.org/dil/1984_cartagena_declaration_on_refugees.pdf.] 6. Fifteen countries have incorporated the Cartagena definition into national laws or practices. They include Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. However, not all countries are currently basing refugee status determinations on this definition. For more, see UNHCR, “Guid- ance Note on the Outflow of Venezuelans,” March 2018,http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/5a9ff3cc4.pdf 7. Provash Budden, “It’s Time to Treat Venezuela Like a Protracted Refugee Crisis,” Refugees Deeply February 28, 2019, https:// www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/community/2019/02/28/its-time-to-treat-venezuela-like-a-protracted-refugee-crisis 8. See, for example, Karen Jacobsen, “The Forgotten Solution: Local Integration for Refugees in Developing Countries,” Work- ing Paper No. 45, New Issues in Refugee Research, UNHCR, 2001. https://www.unhcr.org/research/working/3b7d24059/forgot-