Wrapped in a thin blanket, Mayra sits in the middle of a pile of overworked and overfilled luggage outside Bogota's bus station. "This is the first time I sleep on the street in my life", she said without removing her mask. The day before, she bought her ticket to reach the border, 550 km away, and return home to Caracas. "What was left of my savings went there", she sighs. But the buses did not leave, Venezuela having closed the border on Thursday. Like Mayra, dozens of return migrants were stranded on the sidewalk in Bogota. Without a penny.
According to migration authorities, 71,000 Venezuelans have returned home since the start of the pandemic. This is not much compared to the 2 million who have settled in Colombia since 2015. But, in time of confinement, this reverse flow turns into a humanitarian challenge for the authorities of the two countries. Officially, thee Venezuela had only 2,377 cases of Covid on Sunday June 7 – although the curve has seen a clear upward trend in recent days – and Colombia more than 39,000. Colombian migration services have announced that Venezuela would restrict the entry of its nationals from Monday, June 8.
On the outskirts of Bogota, on the poorly maintained four-lane, small groups of Venezuelans walk, sometimes with children. Those who cannot afford a bus ticket return home on foot. "180,000 pesos (45 euros), it's a fortune ", sums up Miguel, 27 years old. An engineer in his country, he had worked for two years as a waiter in a restaurant in Colombia. He has " like everyone " lost his job and salary on the first day of confinement.
Venezuelans fled a country in the midst of an economic downturn. When asked why they want to go back today, they all give the same answer: "In Venezuela, I have a roof over my head. " Officially, evictions have been prohibited in Colombia since the start of containment. But the measure is badly respected by owners without heart or without resources. Venezuelans who went out to do their shopping found, when they returned, the door closed and their belongings in the street. “My landlord, 70, lives on the small rent I paid her. I understand that she asked me to leave ", explains Miguel.
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