Venezuela’s imploding economy sparks refugee crisis

Collapse in services and surging violence sends desperate migrants to Colombia and Brazil

Gideon Long in Villa del Rosario, Colombia and Andres Schipani in Boa Vista, Brazil

On a rainy Wednesday before Easter, hundreds of Venezuelan migrants shuffled into the brick-walled courtyard of the Divine Providence Shelter in the Colombian border town of Villa del Rosario, sat down at long, low wooden tables and waited patiently for lunch. A priest led mass before scores of church volunteers served up steaming bowls of rice, lentils and sausages. The migrants tucked in.

Many wore threadbare clothes. Their sunken cheeks and wiry limbs suggested this was the first decent meal in days. Children were barefoot. One man hobbled in on crutches, his right leg amputated below the knee. Another pushed an elderly woman in a wheelchair.

These are the weary, often desperate victims of the worst migration crisis in recent Latin American history.