Venezuelan immigrants will have help from the church
The South American Catholic Church has outlined a joint humanitarian plan to meet the needs of the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who have decided to migrate within the region. The "Bridges of Solidarity" initiative was presented by the Vatican in response to Pope Francis' call to receive, protect, promote and integrate migrants and refugees at every stage of their migratory journey, from departure to transit, arrival and a possible return to home.
Among the different actions are the creation of service centers and shelters for vulnerable migrants, assistance in housing issues, job search, legal procedures, social inclusion and facilitation of access to education and health services.
In addition, the pastoral strategy plans to carry out campaigns to raise awareness among local communities about the phenomenon of migration. Eight episcopates have joined forces to provide this joint response to the challenges of the mass exodus: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina. For this, the Vatican has allocated an initial contribution of 800,000 dollars in the course of two years, from private donations.
"Through coordinated action, this integrated plan includes a wide range of activities and services in favor of Venezuelans, other vulnerable migrants and the local communities that receive them", the plan's leaders explained in their presentation at the Press Office of the Holy thirst. At the moment, the Church of Venezuela is not included in the project, they reported.
"What we want is for the migrant not to be abandoned or feel alone", Father Arturo Sosa, Superior of the Jesuits, told Vatican News radio. In this way, the Venezuelan priest stressed out that "the flow of Venezuelans will find support in the Church to be able to move, information about job opportunities, immediate attention, a place to sleep, a hot meal".
The religious added that in addition to services, it seeks to foster a better environment in the host communities so that "there is no rejection of people seeking to improve their living conditions". They will be helped to integrate, first guiding them with the legal steps and, later, in education and employment sources.
The initiative is concrete and does not come from scratch, he said. Each episcopal conference currently has a project adapted to the needs of their countries, since some are used by Venezuelans as transit and others as the final destination. "It is an occasion to nurture that universal vision of the human being, which is not limited to a race or a culture", he concluded.
According to data released last week by the International Organization of Migration, the number of Venezuelan immigrants in Latin America rose from 89,000 to 900,000 people between 2015 and 2017, an increase of more than 900 percent.
The most vulnerable Venezuelan migrants are indigenous people, women and unaccompanied minors, the UN said in a statement, noting that the greatest difficulties they face are access to health services, the danger of trafficking networks and challenges regarding labor insertion in the host countries.
