Venezuelan refugee crisis

Venezuelan refugee crisis
Part of Crisis in Venezuela
	Top to bottom, left to right:; Hundreds of Venezuelans waiting to stamp their passports in an Ecuadorian customs house; Colombian National Police leading Venezuelans into Cúcuta, Colombia; Airline passengers leaving Venezuela from Maiquetia Airport
Date	2015–present;
Location	Venezuela
Also known as	Bolivarian diaspora; Venezuelan exodus
Cause	Social issues, political repression, crime, economic downturn, corruption, poverty, censorship, unemployment, hyperinflation, shortages, undernutrition, human rights violations and others
Outcome	More than 7.9 million Venezuelans have emigrated; Refugee crisis in countries neighboring Venezuela; Human capital flight; Several countries impose visa requirements and entry restrictions on Venezuelans; The United States, Canada, Spain and several Latin American countries start accepting expired Venezuelan passports for entering the country; The Colombian government announces that babies born to Venezuelan refugees will be granted citizenship;

The ongoing emigration of millions of Venezuelans from their native country is the largest recorded refugee crisis in the Americas. The refugee crisis followed the Bolivarian Revolution, an attempt by the successive presidents Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro to establish a cultural and political hegemony, which culminated in the crisis in Venezuela. The resulting refugee crisis has been compared to those faced by Cuban exiles, Syrian refugees and those affected by the European migrant crisis. The Bolivarian government has denied any migratory crisis, stating that the United Nations and others are attempting to justify foreign intervention within Venezuela.

Newsweek described the "Bolivarian diaspora" as "a reversal of fortune on a massive scale", where the reversal refers to Venezuela's high immigration rate during the 20th century. Initially, upper class Venezuelans and scholars emigrated during Chávez's presidency, but middle- and lower-class Venezuelans began to leave as conditions worsened in the country. This has caused a brain drain that affects the nation, due to the large number of emigrants who are educated or skilled. According to one survey, a sharp increase in the number of Venezuelans wishing to emigrate was observed between December 2015 (30%) and September 2016 (57%). By mid-2019, over four million Venezuelans had emigrated since the revolution began in 1999, the vast majority in just the preceding three-and-a-half years.

Estimates had risen to 7.1 million by October 2022, over 20 percent of the country's population, exceeding the refugees from the Syrian civil war to become the most voluminous such crisis in history. The Norwegian Refugee Council, the Brookings Institution and the Organization of American States commissioner for the Venezuelan refugee crisis, David Smolansky, have estimated that the crisis is also one of the most underfunded refugee crisis in modern history.

According to the UNHCR, more than 7.9 million people have emigrated from Venezuela in the years corresponding to Maduro's rise to power and the consolidation of Chavismo. From May to August 2023, 390,000 Venezuelans left their country, driven by despair over challenging living conditions, characterized by low wages, rampant inflation, lack of public services, and political repression. However, R4V suggests that these figures could be even higher, as many migrants without regular status are not included in the count. The organization's calculation method is based on asylum requests and refugee registrations in each country, which might exclude those in irregular situations.