Today, at the Fourth Ministerial Meeting on the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, Secretary Antony Blinken announced more than $686 million in additional humanitarian, development, economic, and security assistance to facilitate United Nations (UN) and non-governmental organization (NGO) partners’ responses to the needs of displaced persons, migrant and refugee populations, and host communities across the Western Hemisphere.
Today, there are unprecedented levels of forced displacement in the region, with more than 7.7 million Venezuelans displaced due to prolonged political and economic mismanagement, persecution, and violence in Venezuela. The $686 million announced today includes more than $228 million from USAID to provide emergency food assistance to Venezuelan migrants and refugees and host communities in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, as well as other forms of humanitarian aid for vulnerable populations in Venezuela.
The $686 million also includes more than $49 million in economic and development assistance from USAID to support the regularization and integration of migrants, as well as to promote temporary labor mobility opportunities. This support will help migrants to regularize their legal status in the region and access public services and achieve socio-economic integration so they can build new lives and contribute to their new communities. This support will also help facilitate workers’ access to safe, lawful, and temporary labor pathways in countries with demonstrated labor needs not met by the available workforce.
The United States government remains committed to working with partners to support displaced people in the region and to advance a safe, orderly, and humane approach to managing hemispheric migration.