Venezuela: FM Arreaza Meets UN Officials on Migration Issues

Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza held a meeting on Tuesday with representatives of the United Nations (UN) to address the situation of his country's migrants.

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The meeting was attended by the coordinator of the UN System in Venezuela Peter Grohmann, the representative of the International organization for Migration (IOM) Jorge Valles, and the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Matthew Crentsil.

Arreaza proposed to allocate part of the resources approved by the UN to the "Return to the Homeland Plan" which seeks to guarantee the safe and voluntary return of Venezuelans stranded in other countries.

"We have undertaken a review of all the issues and we have agreed on a review of resources that have been approved and publicly announced for Venezuelan migrants, which are not reflected in reality," Arreaza said. 

"We have recovered our Embassy to the Plurinational State of Bolivia. The usurpers dismantled it. They took books, computers, works of art. Even the bust of the Liberator was stolen."

Over 20,000 Venezuelans have returned to the country through free flights managed by the government in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Arreaza noted that none of Venezuelans who have returned to the country had received support from a government or an agency to improve their living conditions in the countries to which they migrated and from which they returned.

On November 11, President Nicolas Maduro denounced the lack of support by the UNHCR to facilitate his government initiatives to assist Venezuelan nationals who want to return. He also accused the governments of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru of discriminating against Venezuelan emigrants.