Voice of America
18 Mar 2023, 10:35 GMT+10
brussels - International donors pledged more than $850 million at a conference in Brussels to help support millions of refugees and migrants who have fled Venezuela, the European Union said on Friday.
The EU and Canada co-hosted the two-day meeting aimed at raising awareness and funds to help tackle what they call one of the world's largest displacement crises.
'Almost 810 million euros [$860 million] have been pledged at the 2023 Solidarity Conference with Venezuelans and their hosts,' European crisis management commissioner Janez Lenarcic said. 'I am encouraged by the renewed commitment of the international community.'
More than 7 million Venezuelans have left their country, propelled by grinding poverty and a political crisis, according to estimates by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).
Among the main pledges were $171 million from the United States, $80 million from the EU and $42 million from Canada.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government had accused Canada and the European Union of convening a 'hostile' conference that politicizes migration.
Caracas strongly objected to the International Conference in Solidarity with Venezuelan Refugees and Migrants and their Host Countries and Communities, with the foreign ministry calling it a 'spectacle that only serves the commercial interests of some participants."
The UNHCR and International Organization for Migration, which were both involved in the conference, had urged increased international support for Venezuelan refugees and migrants and the Latin American and Caribbean countries that host them.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi thanked the EU and Canada for hosting the event. He called the plight of the Venezuelan refugees 'one of many dimensions of human mobility in the Americas that need humanitarian and development responses."
Get a daily dose of Rio De Janeiro Sun news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Rio De Janeiro Sun.
More InformationPortimao [Portugal], March 28 (ANI): A dramatic first Grand Prix weekend of the year concluded with Joan Mir recovering to ...
New Delhi [India], March 28 (ANI): The second day of the 2nd Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group (ECSWG) meeting ...
At least 39 people are dead after a fire broke out before dawn Tuesday at a Mexican immigration detention facility ...
Beijing has accused Washington of ?double standards? over its stance on investigating the sabotage of the pipelinesThe Chinese Foreign Ministry ...
QUITO, Ecuador, 28th March, 2023 (WAM) -- A landslide triggered by heavy rains in Ecuador's Andean region killed at least ...
Panama expects a surge in the number of people making the perilous trek this yearThe government of Panama is raising ...
OTTAWA, Canada: US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have announced a plan to close a loophole ...
UVLADE, Texas: Texas police stopped a Florida-bound freight train this week and discovered two migrants had died in a freight ...
ROLLING FORK, Mississippi: A powerful tornado has struck Mississippi, killing at least 25 people, injuring dozens, flattening entire blocks and ...
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras: In what could signal the end of his country's decades-long relations with Taiwan, Honduran foreign minister Eduardo Enrique ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: A new US Congressional committee focusing on China held its second hearing on the alleged abuses of the ...
SAN FRANCISCO, California: A new round of extreme winter weather that hit California, also drifted into neighboring Southwest states, with ...