The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.N. International Organization for Migration (IOM) launched a program on Tuesday to help tens of thousands of Venezuelan migrants settle for the long-term in Brazil, APA reports citing Reuters.
USAID officials said the agency will provide $4 million to fund the program that will facilitate access to employment, business training and language courses to aid the economic and social integration of Venezuelan émigrés.
Almost 900,000 Venezuelans fleeing the political and economic crisis in their country have crossed the border into Brazil since 2018, according to Brazilian authorities.
Most have continued to other countries, especially in Spanish-speaking Latin America, but 264,000 Venezuelans have applied to stay in Brazil, overwhelming social services in the Brazilian border state of Roraima.
The IOM program backed by USAID will help Brazil’s strategy carried out by the country’s Army and Air Force to move Venezuelan immigrants out of Roraima to cities further south where there are more opportunities for sustainable work and a new life.
The program, called Economic Integration of Vulnerable Nationals from Venezuela in Brazil, was launched by USAID Deputy Administrator for Latin America John Barsa and the U.S. State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Carrie Filipetti.
USAID said it has already provided nearly $15 million to date to support Venezuelans in Brazil.
Since fiscal-year 2017, the U.S. government has provided more than $656 million in humanitarian and development funding to help Venezuelans affected by their country’s ongoing crisis, both inside Venezuela and in 16 neighboring countries.
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