“When my nine-month-old daughter died because of the lack of medicines, doctors or treatment, I decided to take my family out of Venezuela before another one of my children died. Diseases were getting stronger than us. I told myself, either we leave or we die.” – Eulirio Baes, a 33-year-old indigenous Warao from Delta Amacuro in Venezuela. He abandoned the Warao’s ancestral lands and took his entire family to Brazil after three relatives died. in the 1951 Convention/1967 Protocol and the 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, are applicable to the majority of Venezuelans. In a recent statement, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights indicated that “Countries in the region have been confronted with the massive arrival of people who often have urgent humanitarian and human rights protection needs.” 31 Host countries have shown commendable solidarity towards Venezuelans arriving on their territory, giving them protection and assistance. Through the Quito process, they have cooperated to harmonize their protection responses for Venezuelan nationals and facilitate their legal, social and economic inclusion. But faced with intermittent border restrictions, Venezuelans fleeing to neighbouring countries are also increasingly relying on irregular and dangerous routes to cross borders. People taking such routes are exposed to risks such as sexual exploitation, abuse and kidnapping, including in areas where illegal armed groups and guerrillas operate. As the number of Venezuelan refugees and migrants continues to rise, so do their needs and those of the communities hosting them. Given the magnitude of the outflow of Venezuelans, only a coordinated and comprehensive approach by governments, humanitarian and development actors, supported by a well-funded international response, will enable the region to cope with the full scale of the crisis. With the objective of ensuring a coherent and coordinated operational response, UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) established the Regional Interagency Coordination Platform in September 2018. The two organizations also appointed a UNHCR-IOM Joint Special Representative for Venezuelan Refugees and Migrants and designed a Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan involving 95 partners and for the benefit of 2.2 million individuals. 31 Oral update on the situation of human rights in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, statement by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, 40 th session of the Human Rights Council, 20 March 2019. See: www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews. aspx?NewsID=24374 Number of asylum applications Figure 9 | New asylum applications by Venezuelans | 2014-2018 350,000 300,000 250,000 200,000 150,000 100,000 50,000 0 ‘14 26 ‘15 ‘16 ‘17 ‘18 unhcr > Global trends 2018