The United States Announces More than $314 Million in New Stabilization Efforts and Humanitarian Assistance for Venezuelans and other Migrants at the Summit of the Americas

During the Summit of the Americas, President Biden announced new efforts by the Department of State and USAID that will assist vulnerable refugees and migrants across the region, including those displaced from the political and economic crisis in Venezuela and humanitarian assistance for vulnerable Venezuelans in Venezuela.

$40 Million in USAID Development Funding

• With $35.9 million in FY 2021 Development Assistance (DA), Economic Support Fund (ESF), and Global Health Programs–USAID funds for South America, including in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, USAID will promote the social and economic integration of the millions of Venezuelan migrants through policy reform, pathways for legal status, professional certification, job training and placement, microenterprise creation, access to financial services, and other socio-economic integration efforts.
• In Central America, with $4.1 million in FY 2018 and FY 2019 ESF, USAID will expand integration efforts in Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama, to support the dignified social and economic integration of third country migrants from Nicaragua, as well as from Venezuela, Haiti, and other countries around the region.

$171 Million USAID Humanitarian Funding

• This new funding will provide direct relief to vulnerable Venezuelans who have remained within the country, including healthcare, food, nutrition, water and sanitation, and protection services. The new funding will also help Venezuelan migrants and refugees who have fled to Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru by providing emergency food assistance. With USAID support, partners aim to address acute food insecurity among Venezuelan migrants and refugees in these four countries by providing them with hot meals, cash transfers, food vouchers, and food kits.

Nearly $103 Million Department of State Humanitarian Funding

• This new funding through the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) supports a wide range of life-saving humanitarian programs for Venezuelan refugees and migrants, such as emergency shelter; access to health care; water, sanitation, and hygiene supplies; increased access to education; support for livelihoods; COVID-19 support, and protection for vulnerable groups including women, youth, LGBTQI+, and indigenous people in seventeen countries including Argentina, Aruba, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guyana, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela.