Venezuela’s political and economic crisis has increased the risk of “statelessness” for thousands of children born abroad, movie star Angelina Jolie warned Saturday during a trip to the region.
“The president and I spoke of the risk of statelessness for more than 20,000 Venezuelan children, his commitment to always helping children,” she said following a meeting with Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez.
Colombia has borne the brunt of the refugee crisis, welcoming roughly 1.3 million Venezuelans into the country over the last four years. Jolie, a special envoy for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, is on a two-day trip to amplify U.N. calls for additional international support for the countries sheltering the four million Venezuelans who have fled strongman Nicolás Maduro’s rule.
“We agreed on the urgent need for the international community to give more support to Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, who are bearing the brunt of this crisis,” Jolie said.
Roughly four million refugees have fled Venezuela since 2014, according to U.N. estimates. About 768,000 people have left for Peru, along with another 263,000 to Ecuador.
“Latin American and Caribbean countries are doing their part to respond to this unprecedented crisis but they cannot be expected to continue doing it without international help,” Eduardo Stein, who handles Venezuelan refugee issues for the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and the International Organization for Migration, said Friday.
The refugee crisis motivated Colombia and other regional partners to join President Trump in declaring Maduro an illegitimate ruler. Trump recognized top opposition lawmaker Juan Guaidó as interim president of the country in January, but a U.S.-led effort to deliver humanitarian aid to Venezuela in coordination with Guaidó failed in February, when security services loyal to Maduro blocked the deliveries and closed the border with Colombia.
The attempt to oust Maduro has listed since the end of April, when Guaidó made an unsuccessful bid for a military uprising against the regime. Jolie’s trip coincided with Maduro’s decision to reopen the border crossings with Colombia, in a reprieve for Venezuelans laboring under a food shortage.
