Venezuela–Colombia migrant crisis
Images from top, left and right:
Colombian National Police assisting refugees with their belongings. An elderly Colombian refugee being carried by a Colombian National Police officer. Colombian refugees in a makeshift shelter seeking shade. |
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| Date | 19 August 2015 – 12 August 2016 |
|---|---|
| Location |
 Venezuela  Colombia
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| Outcome |
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The Venezuela–Colombia migrant crisis refers to a diplomatic and humanitarian crisis that occurred in mid-2015 following the shooting of three Venezuelan soldiers on the Venezuela–Colombia border that left them injured and President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro's response of deporting thousands of Colombians. Maduro's response of declaring a state of emergency, closing the border to Colombia indefinitely and deporting thousands of Colombians that lived near the border, struck fear in tens of thousands of other Colombians living in Venezuela resulting in their emigration from the country and a crisis involving separated families and Colombians seeking food and shelter. The actions of President Maduro were questioned by human rights groups, the United States, the United Nations and the European Union.
Conflicts eventually lessened months after tensions initially flared in August 2015. By July 2016, the Venezuelan government allowed Venezuelans to traverse into Colombia once again, with hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans taking advantage of the opportunity in order to retrieve food due to shortages in Venezuela. On 12 August 2016, the Venezuelan government officially reopened its border with Colombia.
Since the 1970s, Colombians had fled to Venezuela to avoid violent conflict in their homeland. In the 1990s, Colombians amounted to 77% of all immigrants in Venezuela, according to Raquel Alvarez, a sociologist at the Andes University in Venezuela. Going into the 2000s, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez used record high oil revenues to fund populist policies and social programs known as Bolivarian Missions in Venezuela. With such programs, the Chávez administration then granted Colombians residency, the right to vote and other social services; even offering bus rides for Colombian-Venezuelans across the border who wanted to vote for Chávez. Colombians who received such benefits would often in turn support Chávez in elections. The creation of currency controls and subsidies under Chávez also allowed a business of smuggling to occur across borders. On the border of Colombia and Venezuela, Colombians would often take advantage of the Bolivarian government's subsidies and smuggle price fixed goods from Venezuela to Colombia in order to receive profits.
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