![]() ![]() Colombia, despite months of lockdown, is seeing infections jump at record rates, recently passing 4,000 daily confirmed cases for the first time. No resident has shown symptoms of Covid-19, though outside the two ditches that border the camp, cases are skyrocketing. “It really is an unfortunate situation and one that you don’t want any human being to be in during a pandemic.” “The health risks for those in the camp were multiple: the cold, the dampness, the rain, all of this makes them more vulnerable to a respiratory disease,” says Marianne Menjivar, the IRC’s representative in Colombia. Locals occasionally donated food from the windows of their cars, while NGOs – including the Norwegian Refugee Council and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) – told residents how to limit the risks of contracting Covid-19 and helped with onward journeys. Some supervised food distribution or helped repair the makeshift latrine, others kept a census or gave religious sermons. Responsibilities in the camp were divided between a handful of leaders including Fuentes. ![]() “Keeping the place clean and sanitary is our priority, because just one case of the coronavirus would spread like wildfire,” Fuentes says, wearing a face mask like most in the camp. I’m taking each day as it comes, trying to stay healthy until I can get home Juana Leiva, camp resident ![]() Now, with his wife, he helps the other residents. José Gregorio Fuentes, 56, from Venezuela’s western Portuguesa state, was among the stranded migrants who set up the makeshift camp in late May. Between rain showers, hundreds of hungry Venezuelans packed up their tents and queued for buses. Last Thursday morning the city began bussing the migrants towards the border. Photograph: Guillermo Legaria/Getty Images Jobless and homeless Venezuelan migrants wait for the authorities to organise buses to the border. “With a little help from God, I’ll get there.” “The dream is to get home and get a roof over my head,” Vera says. “I can knock on doors but if there’s no work, what can I do?” Vera asks, as she washes her clothes in a stream. Vera, like the 430 others here, would rather be home in Venezuela, where at least shelter is guaranteed. She has spent the past month camped outside a bus terminal on the northern outskirts of the city. Unable to pay rent, she was evicted from the house she shared with other migrants in the south of Bogotá. Nearly 2 million live in Colombia.īut now, with lockdown shuttering businesses and keeping customers away, there is little work for Venezuelans such as Vera. More than 4 million Venezuelans have now left, with about 5,000 crossing into neighbouring Colombia each day at the end of last year, according to data from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). I can knock on doors but if there’s no work, what can I do? Going home is the only option I have Rosa Vera Hyperinflation is rampant, rendering the currency, the bolivar, practically useless, while food shortages are a daily reality. Venezuela, despite having the largest proven oil reserves on the planet, is mired in economic and social ruin. “I never thought that here I wouldn’t be able to feed myself.” “I left Venezuela because the situation was so bad that I couldn’t feed my family,” Vera says, as cars whizz along the highway that cuts through the impromptu camp. ![]()
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