This revised Emergency Appeal has an increased timeframe, number of people to be reached and budget. The number of services to be provided is increased from 120,000 to 170,000. The budget has been increased to 6,591,863 Swiss francs from 4.89 million Swiss francs. The budget is distributed in the same manner as in the original Emergency Appeal with additional funding to permit new activities that respond to the current analysis of humanitarian needs in the country, as well as support for the continuation of work by the operational team.
This revised plan of action supports continued activities in the areas of focus of shelter; livelihoods and basic needs; health; water, sanitation and hygiene promotion; protection, gender and inclusion; migration; and disaster risk reduction. Emphasis will continue in primary health care including first aid services especially in the points along the paths for the caminantes (migrants on foot). The increase in the timeframe also allows for additional cash transfer initiatives, further protection activities (training parents and teachers to build protective environments), as well as distribution of hygiene and first aid kits for community shelters, dignity kits for adolescents, training and community-level dissemination to promote integration and social cohesion, and improved distribution of nutritional supplements.
These are intended to transition into longer-term planning that aligns with the CRCS’s revised Migration Strategy 2018-2021, which the CRCS Governing Board plans to approve by July 2019. This revised plan of action maintains its interventions in nine departments: Arauca, Atlántico, Cundinamarca, La Guajira, Nariño, Norte de Santander, Putumayo, Santander and Vichada, while expanding to additional departments based on emerging needs and available funding.
A. Situation analysis
Description of the disaster
In recent years, the number of people migrating from Venezuela to neighbouring countries and other locations around the globe has increased. UNHCR has estimated that over 4 million Venezuelans have migrated, with 2.7 million of these since 2015 . As of 31 March 2019, Migracion Colombia, the Colombian state entity in charge of migration, estimated that there were 1,260,594 Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, the vast majority of which are in the departments of La Guajira, Cundinamarca, Norte de Santander and Atlántico, each estimated to host more than 100,000 migrants. It is expected that the number of migrants in Colombia will be somewhere between 1.7 to 2.3 million by the end of 2019. Approximately 770,000 Venezuelan migrants hold a residence permit or a transit permit. This means that Colombia receives the largest number of Venezuelan migrants in the region. Additional transcontinental migrant flows have been identified as transiting through Antioquia and the Gulf of Uraba, to reach Panama and North America, in some cases fleeing violence, persecution or breach of human rights, as well as for personal or economic reasons.
The Colombian people and its government have shown extraordinary hospitality and solidarity, but the impact of this enormous inflow of people on the country’s services, economy and host communities has been immense. The country’s infrastructure and financial capacities are overstretched, and social tensions are noted, especially in locations where migrants have settled (such as the departments of Bogota, Antioquia, Norte de Santander, Atlántico and La Guajira). In November 2018, the World Bank estimated that the cost of additional public services caused by migration lies between 0.23% and 0.41% of Colombia’s GDP . Pendular migration especially characterizes the departments of Arauca, Norte de Santander, Vichada and La Guajira.
The migration phenomenon has to be considered in the context of the existing humanitarian situation in Colombia, including internal displacement. OCHA estimates that in 2019, there will be 7 million people in need in Colombia, including 1.9 million migrants and 5.1 million people affected by the humanitarian situation due to natural disasters or armed conflict. There are 96 municipalities (9% of all municipalities in Colombia) where the population is affected simultaneously by armed conflict, natural disasters and migration. Finally, external factors such as changes in third countries’ immigration requirements have had a consequent effect on migration flows in Colombia.