The epidemic of Gender-Based Violence against Venezuelan migrant women on the move

By Giulia D'Antonio

Gender-based violence (GBV) is considered a serious epidemic around the world, and particularly in Latin America. On top of the already-existing violence against women in the region, the risks of GBV have significantly and disproportionately increased for Venezuelan migrant women and girls – including trans women – who have become extremely vulnerable due to the conditions they face throughout the entire cycle of displacement: in Venezuela, along the migration route and in their host countries.

GBV refers to violence directed against a person because of their gender or violence which affects persons of a particular gender disproportionately. Different forms of GBV includes physical, psychological, sexual, patrimonial, symbolic, political, obstetric-gynaecological and cyber violence.

On top of the disproportionate effects of violence on women due to their gender, being on the move creates greater issues.

The migration journey has exposed Venezuelan migrant women to GBV such as sexual exploitation, human trafficking, physical and psychological violence.

Once they arrive to a host territory, this violence continues.

Reports on this issue have highlighted women’s lack of awareness and access to information, healthcare attention, and judicial processes for justice, blaming the failure of the systems of the host states as well as the prevalence of gender discrimination and xenophobia faced by the Venezuelan migrant women.?

An intersectional analysis of the situation of Venezuelan migrant women assess the multitude of vulnerabilities faced by these women. The lack of legal documentation; poverty; financial dependence; lack of support networks; xenophobia; lack of knowledge and access to rights, healthcare and justice; are some of the situations faced by Venezuelan migrant women. Each of these situations multiplies the effects of the others and disproportionately increases these women’s vulnerabilities (UNHCR, 2022).

It is important to highlight that as GBV remains underreported, the data on incidences are lower than the reality. For Venezuelan women facing GBV, these statistics are even more underreported. The violence against them remains hidden due to these women’s fears of the consequences of reporting.

Lack of documentation

Obtaining legal documentation in Venezuela such as national ID cards (cédulas) or passports can be very difficult and expensive, particularly as they request documents which many people may not have access to.

Therefore, many Venezuelan migrant women are forced to flee the country undocumented.

Being undocumented leads to a host of issues as it makes it much harder to enter countries through regular crossings, and therefore migrants seek smugglers to take them through irregular routes. Even those who do travel with documents may have their documents taken by the smugglers, leaving the women increasingly vulnerable to being trafficked and exploited.

En route

Irregular migration routes have become the only way for people to flee Venezuela and enter their host countries including Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, who host the largest amounts of Venezuelan refugees in Latin America.

The strong presence of organised armed and criminal groups along these irregular routes have increased the dangers of the crossing, particularly as the women are recruited for labour or sexual exploitation.

Transportation and irregular border crossings have become hotspots for GBV, where women experience sexual harassment and are forced to have sex with the men in order to access transport to cross the border.

There is little information and statistics on the real issues of GBV en route and of human trafficking due to the inability to carry out research in these dangerous and remote areas, as well as the lack of reporting by survivors.

In the host countries

On top of the violences experienced by Venezuelan migrant women during their hard journeys out of Venezuela, GBV against them continues in most of the host countries they arrive to. Studies have highlighted the violence against Venezuelan women in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, as the Latin American countries hosting the highest number of Venezuelan migrants.

Colombia’s inter-institutional efforts for managing GBV, SIVIGE, found that in 2020, there were 4,165 cases of reported GBV against Venezuelan women in Colombia: 47.5% experienced physical violence; 33% experienced sexual violence; 4% experienced psychological violence; and 15% experienced negligence and abandonment (Amnesty International, 2022)

In 2021, a Plan International study found that 72% of Venezuelan women surveyed said that as a group they had faced GVB in Ecuador: 51% experienced psychological violence in public and private spaces; 41% experienced sexual harassment at work; 32% experienced physical assault within the home; and 10% experienced income control (R4V Plan International).

The same study found that 89.3% of Venezuelan migrant women had faced GBV in Peru: 64% experienced psychological violence; 52% experienced sexual harassment in public places; 41% experiences sexual harassment at work; and 40% experienced physical assault within the home (R4V Plan International).

In these countries, the already high vulnerability for women of GBV has been coupled with xenophobia against Venezuelans and stereotypes that have hyper-sexualised Venezuelan women.

GBV in public places has drastically increased due to this hyper-sexualisation and xenophobia, with perpetrators openly committing violence on the streets. This has included male and female perpetrators, as Venezuelan women have reported being verbally harassed by other women.

The irregular migration status and xenophobia has also impeded many Venezuelan women from finding formal jobs in their host countries, and thus have been pushed into the informal job market, as house maids, cleaners and street vendors. The vicarious nature and lack of regulations of these jobs has increasingly exposed them to GBV such as sexual exploitation and sexual harassment in their workplace.

Transgender Venezuelan migrant women face additional burdens and disproportionately increased risks of GBV as they do not fit in with the societal gender norms and thus face increased discrimination. Discrimination has led to reduced job opportunities for these women and thus has forced them to look for night time work, including sex work, further exposing them to violence.

Moreover, Domestic violence and domestic income control have also been experienced by Venezuelan migrant women. ?

Coming from a country affected by a complex humanitarian emergency, many Venezuelan women further economic vulnerability due to the inability to find stable and safe jobs in their host country. This has pushed them to becoming financially dependent on their partners and thus having little to no financial freedom in cases of domestic violence.

Additionally, women migrants lack the social networks they had back in Venezuela, and thus have no social support in cases of domestic violence. Whilst Colombia and Peru lack emergency shelter for victims of GBV. These financial and social disadvantaging conditions trap Venezuelan migrant women in their homes where they are subjected to domestic violence.

Lack of access to support and justice

Venezuelan women experiencing GBV lack adequate access to information about care pathways for survivors of GBV in their host countries. This is true for most of the host countries, particularly Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

Additionally, many Venezuelan women survivors of GBV are unable to obtain justice due to the barriers they face in reporting the violences. Their irregular migration status has become an impediment in filing complaints to the police as they fear that they will be prosecuted for their irregular status and deported back to Venezuela.

The epidemic of GBV throughout the continent has led a lot of women to lose trust in the justice system, with files of GBV not being taken seriously by authorities. For Venezuelan women, the xenophobia and discrimination they face is an additional barrier to their complaints being filed, adequately investigated, and justice being served.

Moving forward

Amnesty International’s reports on GBV against Venezuelan women on the move have set out recommendations for the authorities of the host countries to ensure the safety and justice of migrant survivors of GBV.

This includes ensuring a migration system that focuses in vulnerable groups of people, including ?those most at risk of GBV. The migration process should ensure protection of these people and prioritise them in processing their documents.

On the other hand, services dedicated to survivors of GBV, including health and care services, and legal justice, should incorporate intersectional perspectives and highlight the increased vulnerability faced by migrant and refugee women. These risks need to be directly addressed and mitigated.?