Authorities in the Brazilian state of Roraima are not doing enough to protect hundreds of unaccompanied Venezuelan children who are fleeing into Brazil from falling prey to criminal gangs, a prominent human rights organization stated on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th December, 2019) Authorities in the Brazilian state of Roraima are not doing enough to protect hundreds of unaccompanied Venezuelan children who are fleeing into Brazil from falling prey to criminal gangs, a prominent human rights organization stated on Thursday.
Amid a biting economic crisis in Venezuela, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report urged Brazil to increase the number of shelters able to accept unaccompanied children. HRW estimates that 529 unaccompanied Venezuelan minors, mostly aged between 13 and 17, crossed the border into the state of Roraima from May 1 through November 21, 2019.
While recognizing that Brazilian authorities in the state have already provided a significant amount of resources to� shelter Venezuelan children, HRW said that more needed to be done, as two government shelters for children ages 12 to 17 have already been ordered to stop accepting children, the report stated.
"While Brazilian authorities are making a great effort to accommodate hundreds of Venezuelans crossing daily into Brazil, they are failing to give these children the protection they desperately need," Cesar Munoz, senior Brazil researcher at HRW, said in the report.
HRW also acknowledged the presence of United Nations shelters in Brazilian towns on the Venezuelan border. However, these are often designated for families with children, lack the required services and support for unaccompanied children, the report stated.
UNICEF is also planning to open two homes in December which will house 20 unaccompanied children. However, HRW insist that Brazilian authorities will have to provide financial support for this project to be sustainable, especially as more people are expected to leave Venezuela.
"The humanitarian emergency is driving children to flee Venezuela alone, many looking for food or health care," Munoz noted.
These children, HRW reported, often fall prey to Brazilian criminal gangs. Many are forced to live on the streets, due to the lack of space in shelters. HRW reported that one Venezuelan teenager had been murdered in the city of Boa Vista in October.
In November, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) outlined the scale of the Venezuela refugee crisis, and launched a $1.35 billion regional plan to respond to the increasing humanitarian needs of Venezuelan refugees and migrants in Latin America and the Caribbean. According to the UNHCR, some 4.6 million people have already fled Venezuela.
