A. Situation analysis
Description of the disaster
The Americas region is culturally diverse, geographically large and socially and economically complex. Around 26.6 per cent of the world’s migrants (61.6 million people) live in the Americas. Disasters, crises, social exclusion, armed conflict and other situations of violence in countries of origin are the main causes of migration in the region, particularly in the Latin American and Caribbean region, where inter-regional migration has been increasing due to different factors such as political, economic, violence and social changes. In addition, significant increases in extra-continental migration have also taken place in recent years, especially due to migratory flows from Africa and Asia into Latin America. Also, irregular migratory flows from the Caribbean have increased substantially in the same period, particularly from Cuba and Haiti, albeit for different reasons.
Migration between countries is a growing challenge that affects the continuity of health care provision and the management of communicable diseases through immunization programs, treatment and education on prevention. Migrant populations and internally displaced people significantly impact their communities of origin and their host communities.
The evolving situation is spreading across the Americas region. Based on conservative government figures, over 1.5 million migrants have left their country since 2014 for different reasons, which is demonstrated by a 900 per cent increase of migrants in other South American countries from 2015 to 2017 (89,000 Venezuelan nationals in 2015; and up to 900,000 in 2017). In Central America and the Caribbean, the number of Venezuelan nationals doubled from around 50,000 in 2015 to almost 100,000 in 2017.
In many of the destination countries in the region, migrants are only able to regularize their status or legalize their stay either under the host government’s national immigration and other legal framework. Considering the extraordinary situation, some of these countries have established special mechanisms to facilitate various forms of regularization and even protection; however, the migratory status of a significant number of migrants is irregular because they have neither the documentation nor permission to remain, including those not able to apply for asylum due to bureaucratic obstacles, long waiting periods or high application fees.
To varying degrees, they can access relevant national services, including health care, education and even social security; nevertheless, across the region, many migrants are unable to secure their status and/or stay under any of these frameworks or mechanisms, making them vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, manipulation and a wide range of other protection risks, including racism, discrimination and xenophobia.