Brazil Sends 60 More Servicemen To Venezuela Border To Manage Migrant Flow - Ministry

RIO DE JANEIRO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd August, 2018) Brazilian government has sent another 60 troops to the northern state of Roraima on border with Venezuela to prevent incidents due to the influx of Venezuelan migrants, the Ministry of Public Security said Tuesday.

On Monday, another group of 60 servicemen already arrived in the state.

"In addition to 60 servicemen of the Armed Forces who arrived in the municipality of Pacaraima in Roraima, another 60 troops were sent on Tuesday to [the state capital of] Boa Vista in order to support the work of the Federal police on the border with Venezuela," the ministry said in a statement.

It is expected that servicemen who left Brasilia on 16 vans and buses would arrive in Roraima in a few hours. A total of 151 employees of the country's armed forces will be deployed at the border.

Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry earlier called for a summit of South American and Central American countries to discuss the flows of migrants from Venezuela.

Earlier it was reported that the Peruvian authorities intend to follow Ecuador's example and introduce a passport control for citizens of Venezuela, who are now migrating to neighboring countries because of a bad social and economic situation in their country.

In early May, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that the flow of migrants from crisis-torn Venezuela increased more than 10-fold, to 900,000 in 2017 from 89,000 in 2015. The total number of Venezuelans who seek asylum around the world increased to 1.5 million from 700,000 during this period.

Venezuela has been struggling with political and economic crisis, which includes a shortage of goods, galloping inflation and a fall in government revenues caused by a decline in oil prices.