Given the deteriorating circumstances, UNHCR today issued updated guidance, calling on countries to allow Venezuelans access to their territory and highlighting the critical importance of ensuring access to asylum procedures for those forced to run for their lives. The note also recommends countries not to deport or forcibly return Venezuelans as their lives may be put at risk.

The guidance note includes recommendations on how to handle cases such as that of Juan Carlos, a 28-year-old Venezuelan who had worked for three years in the communications department of a state-owned business in Venezuela. He never imagined that an interview with the local press revealing irregularities at the office where he worked could place him in grave danger.