The Venezuelan exodus adds a new drama: Stateless Babies – 14/05/2019

By Christine Wardrobe

Arelys Pulido had already lost a baby in a hospital in poor condition in Venezuela, where doctors and medical supplies are increasingly rare. So when she got pregnant again She decided to give birth abroad.

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She fills the suitcases with clothes and some statuettes of saints who, she hoped, would protect her and her unborn daughter when they would cross one of the dangerous unlawful proceedings in Colombia.

This year is born Zuleidys Antonella Primera, a lively girl with black hair and black hair who does not suspect the odyssey that her mother had to have in a hospital located across the border in Cucuta.

For the moment Zuleidys he has neither the citizenship of the country from which his parents fled nor where he was born. This is one of the growing numbers of children born to Venezuelan migrants without legal residency in Colombia, who are in practice essentially stateless

"This is one more concern," said Jose Antonio Primera, the baby's father, a former military man who now lives on motorbike painting.

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Although children born to emigrants have the right to Venezuelan citizenship, they would be obliged to officially register with a consulate or go to Venezuela to get it. Both things are impossible for many families. They do not want to return until the situation improves and the consulates are closed since Nicolás Maduro broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia in February.

Colombian government grants newborns comprehensive health care during their first year and allows them to enroll in school, but stateless experts fear that if the Venezuelan crisis lasts for years, these children can reach adulthood without rights key as an option to travel legally, buy a property or get married.

The Colombian civil registry has evidence of at least 3,290 boys since December 2016, who have not been able to obtain their citizenship. Humanitarian groups estimate that this number could reach 25,000.

Even with the lowest estimate, according to activists, the number of children at risk of becoming homeless in Colombia is worrisome.

"This is a significant figure when we think it comes from a single crisis," said Amal de Chickera, co-director of the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion. "And if it's extended and it's not cut at the root, it can get a lot bigger."

Almost 1.3 million Venezuelans now live in Colombia, about 40% without legal authorization. Colombia has received more Venezuelan immigrants than any other country and the numbers should not decline in the short term. Although the border between the two countries is closed, thousands of people enter Colombia every day on the same dirt roads that Pulido used when she was pregnant.

The Colombian Constitution grants citizenship at birth only to boys under 5 years of age. a Colombian ancestor or a mother or father who can prove that she has a residence permit.

Many Venezuelans who arrive they do not have a pbadportmuch less a visa. The temporary two-year visa granted by the Colombian government on a provisional basis to nearly 600,000 Venezuelans does not confer citizenship.

Babies in limbo

That left a lot of babies in a legal vacuum.

The Colombian authorities point out that Venezuela is to blame for the new generation of children born abroad and virtually stateless, but that it is trying to remedy the situation.

"All agree that we must take exceptional measures," said Alfredo Posada, spokesman for the Colombian Civil Registry.

The government is studying a proposal to give any Venezuelan boy born in Colombia since the beginning of the exodus in August 2015 the right to citizenship. The measure should be approved in the coming weeks and legislators are working on a similar text in Congress.

Stateless people became an international concern from the period between the first and the second world war, when the number of people fleeing the persecution has increased or they have been excluded from the citizenship laws, explained David Baluarte, subject matter expert at the University of Washington and Lee.

The issue became more alarming during the Second World War, when the Jews were stripped of their citizenship in Nazi Germany before being sent to concentration camps.

Two United Nations treaties protect the right to citizenship, but it is believed that today there are 10 and 15 million stateless people.

Experts stress that it is up to Colombia to address the situation of Venezuelan children born in its territory.

"At the moment, these children would be stateless in Colombia, so they have an obligation to grant citizenship," De Chickera said. "It would be a very strict interpretation of the law, but I think it's important to keep in mind that it's a very extraordinary moment."

When they are born in Colombia, the children receive a birth certificate, but the document clearly indicates that This is not valid for obtaining nationality.

"The fact that the father is an irregular migrant does not give birth to an irregular migrant child," said lawyer Xiomara Rauseo.

At this point, Venezuelan parents can try to go to court to get citizenship for their children, but little get it. The Constitutional Court of Colombia has two cases pending, said Lucía Ramírez, coordinator of investigations and immigration issues at the non-profit organization Dejusticia.

Others have tried through the Department of Foreign Affairs, which must review within three months the cases in which a foreign consulate does not provide citizenship. Dejusticia knows only one case that has been successful this way, said Ramírez. However, this baby was not born of Venezuelan migrants.

"This is not a procedure that people use," he said.

At the Erasmo Meoz University Hospital, in the border town of Cucuta, parents of newborns wait in front of a registration desk, eager to ink their children's feet and obtain their official birth certificate, only to discover that the country did not grant them citizenship.

"The normal thing would be for the baby to come out and be of Colombian nationality," said Eduardo Bravo, a former policeman, cradling his daughter in his arms. "We are here in Colombia not because we want it, but out of necessity."

Pulido, 44, crossed the Colombian border for the first time while she was in the fourth month of her pregnancy to undergo ultrasound that she could not have in her homeland. origin. Walking on a river in an improvised canoe was difficult, as were the painful memories of her previous pregnancy: the baby died during childbirth after a minor complication. Pulido attributed to the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.

"Several friends have already died giving birth, so I came," he said.

Pregnant for eight months, she packed her suitcase and finally left.

Recently, one afternoon, Pulido and her husband, First, examined the white paper with the small fingerprints of their daughter that had given them to the hospital. They did not know how to interpret it, happy at the same time, confused.

The couple said they were not worried that Zuleidys would grow up in Colombian or Venezuelan, provided one of the two countries recognized her.

"In such a way that he has his right as a human being," said Primera.

Meanwhile, the family faces equal or more urgent concerns as they try to rebuild their lives in another country. First had problems finding a job. The couple sleeps with the baby on a mattress on the floor in a three-room apartment where 13 people live. And they still do not have a refrigerator.

The statues of saints that Pulido wore when crossing the border rest on a concrete shelf, beneath reused bottles of Pepsi filled with water.

"We are in the hands of God," said Primera.

Source: AP