ICRC Says Assigned Some $10Mln Of Extra Funding To Help Venezuelan Migrants In Colombia

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has allocated about $10 million in additional funding to support its aid operations in Colombia due to the political tensions in Venezuela that have triggered a mass influx of migrants into Colombia, Jordi Raich Curco, the head of the ICRC regional delegation in Mexico and Central America, told Sputnik

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th March, 2019) The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has allocated about $10 million in additional funding to support its aid operations in Colombia due to the political tensions in Venezuela that have triggered a mass influx of migrants into Colombia, Jordi Raich Curco, the head of the ICRC regional delegation in Mexico and Central America, told Sputnik.

"We have increased operations because of the situation in Venezuela affecting Colombia ... Because of the influx of migrants. People that left Venezuela need assistance on the Colombian side. So we have been working with the Colombian Red Cross in this case to provide this assistance in the areas ... I think they have has an additional $10 million for this year," Raich Curco said.

According to the United Nations, more than 3.

4 million Venezuelans are living abroad, of whom 2.7 million have left the country since 2015. Colombia is the Primary host country, sheltering 1.1 million people.

Venezuela has been in a crisis since the 2015 oil market collapse. It escalated in January when lawmaker Juan Guaido was elected as the president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, which all other government branches have been refusing to recognize since 2016, and then declared himself the country's "interim president."

Legitimate President Nicolas Maduro, who was sworn in for his second presidential term on January 10 after winning the May election, which part of the opposition boycotted, called Guaido's move an attempt to stage a coup orchestrated by Washington.