More than 80% of Venezuelans living in Colombia do not have a permit to stay

Through the Pulse of Migration Survey published by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), it revealed that between January and February 2022, 84.6% of Venezuelans residing in Colombia do not have the Special Permit to Stay (PEP), the document that allows their legal stay in the territorial national level.

In the country, only 15.4% of the Venezuelan population has the permit, which makes opportunities to access decent work even more difficult.

According to the statistical entity, of the total number of migrants in the PEP, 15.7% correspond to women and 15% to men. Since 2018, 41.3% of this population has had the permit and since 2019, 24%; 2%.

As for the occupations that Venezuelans engage in when they arrive in Colombia and before obtaining the PEP, the survey showed that 51.7% of migrants spend most of their time working; 24.3% sought work, 6.8% were studying and 14.3% were engaged in domestic trades.

However, when the survey inquired about whether the Venezuelan population has had difficulty getting a paid job, 85% said yes. This situation is mainly exacerbated, for women in 89.2%, who find lack of employment opportunities (57.1%), especially among those 55 years of age or older (66.7%).

Regarding health, 57.1% of migrants reported that not all members of their family have access to health in Colombia and 42.9% said they do. Regarding the intention to vaccinate, 71.8% of the Venezuelans surveyed responded that the vaccine was already applied; 23.2% said they were interested in getting the vaccine against the coronavirus and 5.1% said they were not interested in applying the vaccine.

According to the survey, for January-February 2022, 24.2% of migrants living in Colombia and whose origin is Venezuela reported that the department where they resided when they first arrived in the country was Bogotá; for 14.3% it was Norte de Santander and for 9.5%, Antioquia.

Finally, the survey consulted the Venezuelan population on access to education in Colombia for family members who are of school age. At this point, 68.0% said they do have access, 22.0% have no school-age relatives and 10% did not have access; the main reason for not having access is because they have no papers (75.3%).

KEEP READING: