Colombia offers work permits to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants

[Bacchus4.0]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-colombia/colombia-offers-work-permits-to-hundreds-of-thousands-of-venezuelan-migrants-idUSKBN1ZS2YE

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia will allow hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants to legalize their presence in the country through work permits meant to bring them into the legal economy, the government said on Wednesday.

Colombia is the principal destination for Venezuelan migrants fleeing from political, social and economic crisis under the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

Unlike its neighbors, Colombia has not imposed stringent immigration requirements on Venezuelans, and 1.6 million now live in the country. The United Nations said last year the figure could rise to 2.4 million by the end of 2020.

The first permit is a renewal of the so-called PEP visa, which was previously used by the government to give legal status to migrants. It could benefit some 200,000 Venezuelans who entered the Andean country before Nov. 29 last year, the migration agency said in a statement.

[COLGATE4]

2. Even when they eventually do, it will take years (if not

decades) to bring that battered country back to some semblance of how it was before Chavez.