‘When migration is motivated by hunger, it won’t end’

Al Jazeera: Jorge Briceno made it 1,400km across Colombia after fleeing his home in Venezuela more than week ago. After exiting Colombia on Saturday, he was just metres from the Ecuadorian town of Tulcan, before he found himself stuck with an encampment of migrants who were huddled at the border checkpoint as nightfall approached.
By midday Sunday, the number of Venezuelans in the 200-metre stretch between the Ecuadorian and Colombian borders swelled to nearly 1,000, owing to Ecuador’s recent decision to block them from passing through its territory unless they had valid passports.
Briceno, like many bottle-necked migrants, left everything behind.
He quit his job, sold his motorcycle and left his family before setting out on the journey to Peru, where friends planned to help him find a job to make enough money to bring his wife and children.
Bercino and others say returning to the poverty and violence in Venezuela isn’t an option. “To return is to die. If we have to die here looking for a better life for our families, then we’ll die. It’s better than dying in Venezuela [and] not doing anything,” Briceno told Al Jazeera. “We won’t return.”
According to the UN, an estimated 2.3 million Venezuelans have fled the country since 2014, when oil prices suddenly dropped. Venezuela is now suffering from hyperinflation as it continues to reel from food and medical shortages, as well a political crisis that has left much of the country polarised.
Since July, more than 4,000 Venezuelans have passed from Colombia to Ecuador across the Rumichaca border crossing a day, according to Colombia’s migration authority.
While many South American countries offered to take those fleeing economic hardship or political persecution, Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno told local media on Saturday that “everything has a limit”. He added that Venezuelans without passports “simply will not be allowed to come in”.
The new passport rules came after Ecuador declared a state of emergency last week over the influx of migrants. Many Venezuelans have be unable to obtain passports, owing, in part, to the fact their country has all but stopped issuing them due to shortages of ink and paper, but also due to the severe decay of its bureaucratic institutions. Those who can afford it, have paid fees and brides upwards of $2,000 to get a new passport, but for most in Venezuela, where the average monthly wage is about $1 a day, buying the official document is simply not an option.
According to Colombia’s migration authority, up to half the Venezuelans travelling through Colombia do not have a passport. Colombia has allowed Venezuelans to enter with paper ID cards instead. Until this week, Ecuador had done the same.