UNHCR maintains an Integrated Assistance Centre in Maicao, La Guajira (also called CAI), with capacity to host up to 1,400 people. Temporary residents of the CAI are Venezuelans at heightened risk, who are identified through outreach volunteers and referral mechanisms in the community. The aim of the CAI, which will be maintained in 2021, is to help this population recover self-reliance while providing them with physical protection, basic aid, and psychosocial care. Staff working in the CAI are trained to identify and counsel people with international protection needs, offering information on their rights and Colombia’s asylum procedures.
Alongside the CAI, which is a specific initiative for vulnerable Venezuelans arriving in la Guajira only, UNHCR will assist the Government and partners to set up and reinforce reception and transit centre capacity, particularly but not exclusively in border areas (major receiving cities are also an important focus) and notably through a national stockpile of refugee housing units and tents. UNHCR also maintains a network of temporary shelters in big cities, such as in Bogota and Medellin, and in areas near the border such as Norte de Santander, Santander, and Nariño. In other locations, standing agreements with hotels are used to provide ad hoc accommodation in emergency cases to vulnerable Venezuelans. In addition to sustaining this reception capacity in 2021, UNHCR will open a new shelter in Tunja, along the main road from the Venezuelan border to Bogota through which thousands of Venezuelans pass on foot on their way to the Colombian capital, often facing serious protection risks.
2021