Many of us move the border between Venezuela and Colombia on a daily basis – however they don’t seem to be migrants. Those other folks continue to exist the Venezuelan aspect as a result of they can not come up with the money for hire or utilities in Colombia.
The overwhelming majority are girls, a lot of whom are unmarried moms only liable for their youngsters’s subsistence and care. They move the border on foot, incessantly with their youngsters, as a result of it’s their handiest choice for survival.
Prime inflation in Venezuela has made many staples unaffordable, whilst many different crucial pieces are both unavailable or deficient high quality. However hire is inexpensive of their house nation, so they’re referred to as “cross-border commuters”.
As a result of they’re shifting inside the border zone, the legislation does now not require them to have their passports stamped every time. At the Colombian aspect, they purchase items – merchandise which might be inexpensive there — to promote in Venezuela. They to find elements to make truffles and pastries, or hair dye for his or her shoppers. Others move to wait the physician or give start.
Some girls take their youngsters to college in Colombia. In Venezuela, public colleges recently function handiest two days per week, whilst around the border they run for the entire five-day college week and welcome youngsters from Venezuela. Some girls used to take their little ones to nursery in Colombia – however now not any longer, because the fresh USAID cuts got rid of investment for those nurseries.
Within the few hours with out their youngsters, the ladies to find paintings in Colombia’s “gig economy”: recycling rubbish, promoting espresso, status at visitors lighting promoting fried plantains, and even their our bodies.
After I requested a public reputable within the Colombian border town of Cúcuta concerning the girls coming in from Venezuela on a daily basis, he instructed me: “The good ones cross over the bridge [legally], and the bad ones go underneath [bypassing border controls].”
If truth be told, what brings those girls into Colombia, and which direction they use to reach on a daily basis, is a lot more nuanced than that reputable suggests.
Neither executive understands
Regardless of the Colombian executive having arrange schooling, well being and employment techniques for receiving and together with Venezuelan migrants, those girls don’t seem to be conventional migrants. Neither executive has a lot figuring out of what it way for them to hunt a livelihood in Colombia to continue to exist and make stronger their youngsters.
For probably the most section, neither executive maintains up to date statistics on what number of girls there are, the instances they face, why they move over or underneath the bridge, the explanations or traits in their actions, and why they don’t settle completely in Colombia. Those questions, amongst others, are what I’ve got down to analysis.
Some girls stroll from side to side throughout one of the crucial bridges over the Tachira river, which runs alongside the border between the 2 international locations. Others, when returning to Venezuela wearing bundles of products, move on bike taxis.
However crossing the bridge isn’t all the time simple. Some girls document that Venezuelan border guards seek their baggage and confiscate a part of what they create. Different occasions, they should pay – now not simply reputable taxes however bribes too.
‘Under the bridge’: girls move the Tachira river between Venezuela and Colombia.
AP Photograph/Fernando Llano
One girl instructed me how a guard requested for guava-paste candies in alternate for letting her go. Relying at the day and which guards are patrolling the crossing, incessantly they have got to give a legally required go out allow for his or her youngsters, signed by means of the daddy. “What father? That man abandoned me when my child was born, and I haven’t heard from him since,” one girl instructed me.
And not using a allow, legally crossing the border into Colombia with their youngsters turns into nearly not possible. And there is not any authority they may be able to flip to for assist.
Beneath the bridge
Then there are those that move underneath the bridge on a daily basis, as a result of they dare now not chance being requested for a allow for his or her youngsters.
The Tachira river dries up and swells relying at the season, with a couple of casual crossings identified in the neighborhood as “trochas”. When the river is low, other folks stroll throughout on logs positioned like makeshift bridges, or hop from stone to stone. When the water rises, they use small, self-built rafts.
Those crossings is also casual, however they may be able to even be very unhealthy. The ladies instructed me of clashes between armed teams on either side of the river – a few of them were stuck within the crossfire with their youngsters in tow.
Others described circumstances of sexual violence. They had been in particular afraid for his or her daughters, as a result of one of the crucial males guarding the trocha would possibly “set his sights on them” – that means he would possibly take a sexual pastime.
One girl instructed me mobile phones don’t seem to be allowed by means of the individuals who guard the trochas – who supposedly ensure their protection. It provides to their sense of vulnerability. Folks usually pay to move – if now not with cash then with their our bodies. Those are the unstated regulations of those pathways.
Consequently, on a daily basis the ladies concern for his or her protection and that in their youngsters. But when one thing occurs to them within the trochas, they distrust the federal government and concern reporting those crimes.
The ladies are susceptible. They’re neither “good” for crossing over the bridge, nor “bad” for crossing underneath it. Maximum make the verdict on a day by day foundation relying on their sources and time to be had, the papers they have got, the products they wish to raise, and what they imagine highest for his or her youngsters.
As they are saying in Colombia, for those moms “each day brings its own hustle”.
