Today, at the third Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection Ministerial in Guatemala City, Guatemala, the United States announced almost $578 million in humanitarian, development, and economic assistance. This funding will support partner countries and host communities in responding to urgent humanitarian needs, expanding lawful pathways, and supporting the regularization and integration of migrants. This includes $459 million in humanitarian assistance for vulnerable populations including migrants, refugees, and displaced persons across the region, including nearly $83 million in humanitarian assistance funding, through USAID, to meet critical needs of vulnerable Venezuelans.
As a result of prolonged political and economic instability in Venezuela, over 7.7 million people in Venezuela are in need of humanitarian assistance and another 7.7 million Venezuelans have migrated or been forcibly displaced from their home country. In addition, more than $376 million is being provided through the U.S. Department of State to meet the humanitarian needs of refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, stateless persons, and vulnerable migrants, and to support safe, orderly, and humane migration management in the region.
This humanitarian funding provided through USAID will support the delivery of emergency food and nutrition assistance to Venezuelan migrants and refugees, and host communities across the region. With this humanitarian funding, vulnerable populations within Venezuela will also receive urgently needed healthcare, food assistance, water, improved sanitation, and hygiene education and supplies.
In addition to the nearly $459 million in total humanitarian assistance provided by the United States, USAID is working with Congress, subject to the availability of funds, to provide nearly $116 million in development, economic, and health assistance to support the regularization and socio-economic integration of migrants of all nationalities in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama. These funds will be used to connect migrants with legal status processes, healthcare, education, financial services, and workforce development training and job placement, as well as provide support to host communities, so migrants can quickly begin to contribute to their new communities.
For updates on USAID’s assistance for the Venezuela humanitarian crisis impacting the region, please click here. For more information about these and related announcements, please visit the White House Fact Sheet.