Page 5 - Preliminary Report on the Venezuelan Migrant and Refugee Crisis in the Region
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receiving countries, the challenge presents an immense opportunity for prosperity for all those
involved in the process, especially receiving communities. That will depend on the region’s
ability to keep working together to offer a hemispheric response that maximizes the benefits of
this migration phenomenon while at the same time mitigating its possible costs.
This preliminary report contains part of the analysis performed by the OAS Working Group to
Address the Regional Crisis Caused by Venezuela Migrant and Refugee Flows, the ultimate
objective of which is to pave the way for a regional agreement to provide assistance and
protection to Venezuelan migrants and refugees in the Americas. The report describes some of
the determinants of the migrant and refugee crisis that the Working Group’s experts consider
most significant, based on available evidence, their own findings, two visits by the Working
Group to Cúcuta, and evidence gathered from a variety of sources.
Our main conclusions are that the primary determinants of the mass migration are the
humanitarian crisis, the generalized violence, and a repressive system that produces
widespread violations of human rights. The latter is consistent with what was documented by
an independent panel of experts, which concluded that there was sufficient evidence to prove
that acts to which Venezuela’s civilian population had been subjected since at least as far back
as February 2014 constituted crimes against humanity. That evidence, according to the
independent experts, satisfies the standard of proof required by Article 53 of the Rome
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Statute.
12 Organization of American States. Report of the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States
and the Panel of Independent International Experts on the Possible Commission of Crimes against Humanity in
Venezuela, May 29, 2018, http://www.oas.org/documents/eng/press/Informe-Panel-Independiente-
Venezuela-EN.pdf.
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