20,000 Colombians displaced in crisis with Venezuela

More than 20,000 Colombians have fled or been deported from Venezuela in an escalating border crisis, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Some 1,500 Colombians have been sent home by the Venezuelan government since it began mass deportations late last month, said a report from the Colombian office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

More than 18,500 others have fled Venezuela, opting to leave with their families and belongings rather than risk being summarily deported, the report said.

"They have been forced to return on their own because of the current conditions and the fear of being deported," it said.

The figure is considerably higher than the last estimate from the Colombian government, which had put the total number of displaced at 14,000.

More than five million Colombians are estimated to live in Venezuela.

The border crisis erupted when unidentified assailants attacked a Venezuelan anti-smuggling patrol, wounding three soldiers and a civilian.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro blamed Colombian right-wing paramilitaries for the attack and responded by closing part of the border on August 19.

He accused the neighboring country of waging "an attack on Venezuela's economy," a reference to the rampant smuggling of heavily subsidized food, fuel and other goods out of the socialist country.

Both countries have since recalled their ambassadors.

Colombia accuses Venezuela of violating its citizens' rights. But Maduro has refused to back down, extending the closures to several other key crossings along the 2,200-kilometer (1,400-mile) border and sending troops to guard them.

Most of the displaced Colombians have ended up in the border city of Cucuta, many after trekking there with their belongings on their backs.

Authorities have set up a center to deal with the influx.

Venezuela has long used its oil wealth to fund price controls that keep goods like rice and toilet paper up to 10 times cheaper than in Colombia.

But it is also in the grips of crippling shortages, now exacerbated by the tumbling price of oil, the government's main revenue source.

Source: AFP