The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry reported this Saturday that a total of 29,124 Venezuelans have returned to the country with the “Plan Vuelta a la Patria”, on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the implementation of the program that was launched in 2018, to facilitate the return of migrants who were victims of xenophobia in receiving nations.
The Foreign Ministry detailed in a statement that these Venezuelans returned “from 22 countries on 167 flights and one sea transfer” that were made, even during the Covid-19 pandemic, when 11,352 of the total number of returned citizens they did it “safely”.
The “Plan Vuelta a la Patria”, continues the text, also contemplates a National Board for Migratory Protection of Children and Adolescents in which various competent national bodies work to “protect and restore” the rights of Venezuelan minors outside the territory.
“Since the beginning of this initiative in 2018, the multidisciplinary team has processed a total of 782 applications in 37 countries,” The Foreign Ministry pointed out the work of child protection.
The Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Carlos Faria, highlighted according to the letter, that the government plan is maintained despite the difficulties generated by the sanctions imposed on Venezuela which, assured, affect the operation of the state airline Conviasa, used to repatriate citizens.
“Our consular offices and embassies collect and organize the information to carry out new flights. Although the situation is too complex to continue, that has not prevented us from continuing to work on planning to ensure that thousands of other compatriots can continue to return to the homeland. that they wish so because they are in a condition of social vulnerability,” Faría asserted.
Last February, President Nicolás Maduro assured that Venezuelans who left the country were looking for a “better economic opportunity”, but there has been “a lot of discrimination, a lot of xenophobia that has been planted against Venezuela”.
For this reason, the president promised that As of March, the flights of the “Plan Vuelta a la Patria” would triplebut never confirmed whether the commitment was made effective.
The Regional Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela (R4V) estimates that, given the crisis of recent years, Approximately 6,150,000 people have left the oil country, of which 4,992,215 live in Latin America and the Caribbean.