Protecting Venezuelans in Colombia: Reflections from Across the Region

The Colombian government recently announced the launching of a programme to grant 10-year complementary protection and legal status to the approximately 1.7 million Venezuelan migrants and refugees in the country. This decision was considered ‘historical’ by the United Nations and received worldwide attention – it represents a clear shift in how the South American region is managing Venezuelan migratory flows.

This online event will consider the contextual and technical aspects of this new policy, contrast it with the practices of other South American countries and reflect on why neighbouring governments should pay close attention to this landmark decision. We are delighted to have speakers to discuss these topics from Chile, Colombia and Peru as well as the University of Bristol. The webinar is part of our series of MMB Latin America Dialogues.

Speakers:

• Diego Acosta is Professor of European and Migration Law at the Bristol Law School and MMB International Strategic Lead. He works with governments, law firms and international organisations in Latin America and other regions.
• Alexandra Castro is the founder and researcher of the International Migrations Observatory of the Universidad Externado de Colombia. She works as a lawyer specialising in international migration and human rights and as a researcher at the think-tank Diásporas.
• Feline Freier is Professor of Social and Political Sciences at the Universidad del Pacifico, Lima. She specialises in migration and refugee policies and laws in Latin American countries.
• Marcia Vera Espinoza is a Lecturer in Human Geography at Queen Mary University, London. Her research focuses on refugee and migrant inclusion, forced migration and immigration policies in Latin America.

Chair:

• Ignacio Odriozola is an MMB Alumni Ambassador and a lawyer at the Migrants’ Commission of the National Public Defenders Office in Buenos Aires.

Format:

Each speaker will present for 10 minutes. This will be followed by a wider discussion and Q&A with the audience.

The event will take place in English. Please register above to receive a Zoom link 24 hours beforehand.

Everyone is welcome. We are seeking to make our events accessible to everyone, so please let us know if you face barriers we could address.

The MMB Latin America Dialogues are online conversations between MMB members in Bristol and colleagues in Latin America who share specialist areas of interest in the field of migration and mobility studies.