Venezuela is leading among the number of asylum seekers worldwide, but South American countries do not recognise them as refugees. Why?

Both the UNHCR and IOM have labelled the current Venezuelan emigration as a ‘staggering exodus’. More than 4 million people have left the country since 2015. This happened as question marks are being raised about the willingness and capacity of South American countries (where more than 90 per cent of Venezuela emigrants are residing) to respond not only because of the potentially high political and bureaucratic costs that providing refugees protection would entail but also because of fundamental political changes at state level that mean that a much narrower vision of South American regional integration now prevails.

The most recent UNHCR Global Trends 2018 report shows Venezuelans to be the largest nationality of asylum seekers in the world. In 2018 alone, 341,800 asylum applications were made worldwide with the vast majority in other South American states. On paper, at least, South America has the most open and progressive refugee legislation in the world. Yet, South American countries have granted refugee status to a mere 21,000 Venezuelans compared to the granting of other kinds of legal status that have been given to the more than 3 million Venezuelans residing in other South American countries.

This is a part of a blog post by Leiza Brumat.