Indigenous migrants have been forced to leave their ancestral territories in Venezuela because of hunger, disease, violence, and threats related to the exploitation of their habitat and resources, according to research by UNHCR and the Venezuelan Program for Education-Action in Human Rights (Provea).
Eligio Tejerina, an indigenous leader of the Warao ethnic group, now in Boa Vista, told the UNHCR: "We decided to come to Brazil because our children were dying of hunger. They were crying because of hunger. They only ate once a day, at night. Only a small portion."
According to the Guajira Human Rights Committee, the massive migration of indigenous people has forced the breakdown of families and communities, leaving feelings of emptiness and loneliness that are difficult to overcome, given the community nature of their societies.
Johanna Reina, UNHCR Colombia's protection assistant, says: "They face challenges of loss of identity, including their language, and a dramatic deterioration of their organizational structures.
According to the UNHCR, other obstacles they face are language limitations - many of them speak only their native languages and depend on bilingual indigenous men to communicate - as well as lack of ID documents, which prevents access to public policies from which they could benefit.
The migration of indigenous women
According to the International Humanitarian Federation, along their journey, women migrants are subjected to constraints, robbery and abuse by authorities and armed groups. They arrive frightened, tired, hungry and in dire need of assistance, mainly in border towns in Colombia and Brazil. On arrival, they describe how in Venezuela they had to deal with situations such as the death of their children due to lack of access to health, food and basic hygiene, according to the IOM report.
Dozens of them are accompanied by their young children or are pregnant, which increases their vulnerability. During their journey, Human Rights Watch reports that they walk an average of 16 hours a day for approximately 13 days.
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