Colombia to receive loans worth $800 million to help Venezuelan migrants

In February, Colombia said it would provide Venezuelans with temporary protected status, giving them access to jobs and healthcare, for a period of 10 years. Some of the funds will also go toward health and nutritional centers at the border, Duque added.

Colombia will receive long-term loans worth a total of $800 million from multilateral lenders in order to help Venezuelan migrants integrate socially and economically in the Andean country, President Ivan Duque said on Tuesday. Colombia has for years been the top destination for people fleeing Venezuela's economic and social collapse, with just over 1.8 million migrants living there.

The World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank have approved loans of $500 million and $300 million respectively, the organizations said in separate statements, with funds earmarked to help Venezuelan migrants integrate into Colombian society. The funds "are for the proper development of a comprehensive migration policy," Duque said in a statement.

Some of the funds will be used to issue close to 1 million Venezuelan migrants with documents recognizing their temporary protected status in the coming weeks, as well as another 800,000 in the first half of 2022, Duque said. In February, Colombia said it would provide Venezuelans with temporary protected status, giving them access to jobs and healthcare, for a period of 10 years.

Some of the funds will also go toward health and nutritional centers at the border, Duque added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)