Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of : Spain renews its commitment by contributing 50 million euros to attend to Venezuelan refugees and migrants

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, Arancha González Laya, announced on Thursday that Spain will contribute 50 million euros over a three-year period, to support the main countries taking in Venezuelan refugees and migrants in Latin America. This contribution comes on top of another 50 million committed in 2020, also over a three-year period, of which 72% has already been disbursed or scheduled for disbursement.

During the International Donors' Conference in Solidarity with Venezuelan Refugees and Migrants, held today in a virtual format and co-organised by Canada, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Minister for Foreign Affairs underlined that 'the countries taking in migrants are giving a lesson in solidarity that deserves our full support. This is our way of saying to the people of Venezuela and to the host communities in Latin America that we will not leave them to act alone. They continue and will continue to be able to count on Spain'.

The Venezuelan refugee and migrant crisis continues to cause unprecedented needs in Latin America and the Caribbean. More than 5.6 million Venezuelans have abandoned their homes since 2015 and more than 4.6 million of them remain in the region, which has made it the second worst crisis of displaced persons in the world, behind only Syria.

Arancha González Laya also thanked the Canadian Government for having taken on the leadership of the international community of donors in mid-COVID-19 crisis, followed the conference held in Madrid last year. That conference, co-organised by Spain and the European Union, managed to obtain commitments to the tune of 2.51 billion euros, of which almost 577 million were donations. Back then, Spain was the fourth largest donor from among the 30 participating countries and institutions.

The funds allocated to alleviate the situation of the Venezuelan refugees and migrants span both humanitarian assistance actions and development actions, which particularly include strengthening health systems and socio-economic integration.

This Thursday's Canadian conference included donors, host countries, international organisations, international financial institutions, the private sector and civil society. It also included the voices of those people affected by the crisis. Its four goals were to highlight the progress made to date, to raise awareness regarding the priority fields of actions, to mobilise additional resources and to identify future actions to maintain the focus on the crisis.

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