WFP video reveals plight of migrants fleeing Venezuela

Bogota, Sep 24 (IANS/AKI) A recently-shot video due to be distributed later on Monday shows the dire situation facing thousands of people who are fleeing crisis-hit Venezuela, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement.

The video, filmed in Cucuta in neighbouring Colombia, shows the migrants on foot, crossing the river at the border and eating at a WFP-supported community kitchen, the UN agency said.

WFP is providing emergency food assistance - hot meals, food vouchers and school meals - to vulnerable migrants, especially women and children, in four Colombian departments, and is providing food vouchers for migrants on Ecuador's border with Colombia, said the agency.

The video's release comes as world leaders attending the UN General Assembly in New York are due to discuss the thousands of people who are continuing to leave Venezuela in what has become a regional migrant crisis, WFP said.

The Venezuelan economic crisis has led to severe shortages of food and medicines and the collapse of public services.

Venezuela's socialist government blames the economic crisis on an international boycott led by the US.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the country over the past year, as the crisis worsened.

A total 2.3 million people left Venezuela between 2014 and June this year according to the UN.

--IANS/AKI

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