SURROUNDED by vultures perched on trees waiting their turn, penniless Venezuelan migrants scrape a living scavenging for metal, plastic, cardboard and food at the rubbish dump of a Brazilian border town.
Trapped in a wasteland limbo, they barely make enough to feed their families and cannot afford a bus ticket to get away and find regular work in Brazilian cities to the south.
They blame Venezuela’s leftist President Nicolas Maduro for mismanaging their oil-producing nation’s economy and causing the deep crisis that drove them and several million others to emigrate.
A dozen Venezuelans scramble to grab bags of rubbish that tumble from the trash truck twice a day. Then they sift through the piles amidst fetid plumes of smoke rising from the smouldering landfill. Sometimes they scavenge at night using headlamps.
Tens of thousands of migrants have fled the political and economic upheaval in Venezuela through Pacaraima, the only road crossing to Brazil, creating tension at the border. About 3.7 million people have left Venezuela in recent years, mostly via its western neighbour Colombia, according to the World Bank. — Reuters
Watch the video of Venezuelans sifting through a landfill, looking for food:
https://www.reuters.com/video/2019/04/17/hungry-venezuelans-resort-to-landfill-fo?videoId=538832456
