Following Venezuela’s 2018 economic collapse it is estimated that up to 6 million of its citizens fled the country making it, at the time, the biggest human migration since the Second World War.

Most crossed into neighbouring Colombia leaving behind a broken state where a non-functioning government ensured there was no medicine or healthcare, and scarce state services. Hyperinflation devalued the currency until it was almost worthless and border towns were full of makeshift money exchanges where huge piles of Venezuelan bolívar were swapped for just a couple of US dollars.

These economic refugees left with what they could carry and arrived to an unwelcoming world where the lucky ones found poverty level wages and mass exploitation in neighbouring countries.

These photos were taken on the Venezuelan/Colombian border in 2019.