Venezuelans stream home from Colombia

Hundreds of Venezuelans who fled to neighbouring Colombia during their country’s economic crisis are now returning home, pushed by the deadly novel coronavirus and Colombia’s own pandemic woes.

Colombian migration officials said on Sunday that 600 people — including 35 children and 167 women — crossed the border point at the Simon Bolivar International Bridge in the northeastern city of Cucuta, into Venezuela one day earlier.

Another group of 160 departed Bogota on Sunday, officials said.

Although the border is officially closed as a measure taken to halt the spread of the coronavirus, Colombia has opened a “humanitarian corridor” to allow Venezuelans to return home.

In recent years Colombia has welcomed 1.8 million Venezuelans.