On Eve of House Hearing, UNHCR Says Most Venezuelans Should Be Given Refugee Status

By Nayla Rush on May 21, 2019

On the eve of a House Judiciary Committee hearing on a bill that would grant Temporary Protected Status to all Venezuelans in the U.S., the UN refugee agency has said that most of the 3.8 million Venezuelans who have left their country should be classified as refugees.

A few days ago, I elaborated on Oxford Professor Alexander Betts' push to label Venezuelans who are fleeing their country as "refugees" and not "migrants". Betts' reasoning followed these lines: Venezuelans are emigrating because of economic need and not persecution and, as such, are not regarded as refugees. The help they are receiving is, therefore, mostly limited to basic humanitarian aid. Venezuelan migrants need to get access to efficient development assistance that can only come through the global refugee regime nowadays. Labeling Venezuelans as refugees is possible under the 1984 Cartagena Declaration that allows a broader category of persons in Latin America in need of international protection to be considered as refugees. This all falls in line with the Global Compact on Refugees' focus on development-based approaches to displacement.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) must have also been paying close attention to this issue since it just released a statement reiterating its "call to States to allow Venezuelans access to their territory and provide them with proper protection and standards of treatment..." According to UNHCR, "the majority of Venezuelans are in need of international refugee protection, based on the wider criteria of the 1984 Cartagena Declaration applied in Latin America." 

In parallel, UNHCR issued a guidance note "to assist those adjudicating international protection claims by asylum-seekers from Venezuela and those responsible for setting government policy on this issue."

Below are some highlights from the guidance note (emphases are mine):

  • UNHCR considers that the majority of Venezuelan nationals, or stateless persons who were habitually resident in Venezuela, are in need of international protection under the criteria contained in the Cartagena Declaration on the basis of threats to their lives, security or freedom resulting from the events that are currently seriously disturbing public order in Venezuela. ...
  • Given the deteriorating circumstances in Venezuela, UNHCR reiterates its call to States receiving Venezuelans to allow access to their territory and highlights the critical importance of ensuring access to asylum procedures or to group-based protection arrangements with adequate safeguards. ...
  • [I]n all circumstances, the following minimum standards need to be guaranteed:
    1. Legality: UNHCR calls on States to ensure that persons benefiting from such arrangements are issued with an official document recognized by all government authorities.
    2. Accessibility: The relevant arrangements would need to be accessible to all Venezuelans, irrespective of their date of entry into the host country. This would mean that there should be no or minimal costs associated with applying for such an arrangement... Further, neither irregular entry/presence nor the lack of identity documents would be viewed as a valid reason for denying access to such an arrangement.
    3. Access to basic rights: These rights include: 1) access to health care; 2) access to education; 3) family unity; 4) freedom of movement; 5) access to shelter, and 6) the right to work. ...
  • The magnitude of the current outflows poses complex challenges and may lead to asylum systems being overwhelmed. Where this is the case, a State may recognize refugee status through group-based determinations. ...
  • To ensure protection coherence and the harmonisation of State responses, UNHCR is available to advise and support States to bring the current range of protection-sensitive arrangements, including under international human rights law and temporary protection or stay arrangements. ...
  • In view of the challenges that host countries are facing, international responsibility-sharing in the spirit of the Global Compact on Refugees is key. ...

These recommendations are especially important considering Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee scheduled markup of, among other bills, the Venezuela TPS Act of 2019 (H.R. 549). That bill would grant Temporary Protected Status to Venezuelans present in the U.S., legally or illegally, for 18 months, making them eligible for work permits, Social Security numbers, and the ability to travel abroad and return.

My colleague Dan Cadman asked in March, will the United States grant TPS for Venezuela? To be continued . . .