Ria Threadgold, an Edinburgh Law student, speaks of an all encompassing sense of guilt and nihilism when she left the Venezuelan refugee center to return home to the UK.
She had been staying in Pamplona, 70 km from the notorious border crossing between Colombia and Venezuela, where those chased out of their homes by conflict journey to, in the hope of salvation that many would never achieve.
“Even the night I arrived, forces had killed 12 people in the area over 48 hours.” The young student from Aberdeenshire recounts the first — and harrowing — impressions of her experience working for On the Ground International, an NGO that provides support to Venezuelan refugees.
Venezuela is currently undergoing one of the largest economic crises in history. Since 2014, locals have been plagued by insurmountable inflation and food shortages. Despite the situation, political opposition and displays of public discontent are strongly suppressed.
This July, matters only worsened when Nicolás Maduro secured his third presidential term — in an election that governments across the world have recognised as corrupt. Escaping from lawlessness, famine, and murder: the people of the once richest country in South America are now fleeing in their droves.
As a law student on her year abroad in Chile, it was a lifelong desire to help those suffering from injustice, alongside simple coincidence, that had led Ria to head straight into the eye of this storm.
“I got to know some Chilean families through friends, families who were hosting Venezuelans. Even at their dinner tables, the topics that came up would often relate to the crisis”
“Then, when I went to Bolivia and talked with some volunteers, I made the decision to go and help.”
Four flights and twenty-eight hours later, she was being driven to the small shelter which would be her home for the next three weeks.
“The night I landed, one of the organization’s drivers picked me up. About 15 minutes into the drive, we stopped to help a group of refugees — a family of about ten. We had food supplies in the car, so we handed them stale sandwiches, soft Oreos, and some drinks to keep them going”
“Within days, I found myself spending nights in remote shelters, alone with young people who were scared, just like I was. It quickly became more intense than I’d ever expected."
But what she found most distressing about the situation was not the horror, but the attitude of the Colombians, who live in relative luxury compared to their neighbours. Ria noticed that even when paramilitary forces decided to murder refugees under the guise of “cleaning up the streets”, there was a palpable “lack of public uproar or outcry—just a consensus that this was the correct course of action”.
Throughout Latin America, explicit anti-immigration sentiments have become increasingly widespread. Such attitudes have been reflected in the growth of far-right parties, from Javier Millei’s government in Argentina to Nayib Bukele’s in El Salvador.
Ria believes that “the idea that migrants are burdens on society is widespread” and finds parallels with reactions to other migrant crises, such as that in the English Channel: “the rhetoric around migrants often leads to a dehumanization that allows these tragedies to be overlooked”. She reflects on what she had learned in the classroom, where they discussed the rhetoric created by governments and sustained by populist media: this finds resonance across the globe.
Indeed, growing up in rural Scotland, Ria herself was subject to nonchalant, if not negative, attitudes towards immigration. Despite the longevity of the Venezuelan disaster, she had only heard about the region via a Stacey Dooley documentary on Honduras or when “people might casually mention the country in passing, like in taxi rides, for instance.”
“I was living in a village of about 2,000 people. The people I met when I was five were the same ones I went through school with. Everything was very... palatable. Racial diversity, for instance, was almost nonexistent — predominantly white, loosely Protestant, and well-off.” Within this enclave, there was little attention paid to the blight of distant people.
But since her return, Ria has been working tirelessly to combat ignorance of South American life. She has proven there is an appetite amongst the students at The University of Edinburgh for learning about Venezuela and helping those who need it.
Throughout the Scottish capital, organisations are working to achieve similar goals to Ria. STAR (Student Action for Refugees) has weekly meetings for those hoping to talk about these crises, as well as bake sales and socials to raise necessary donations. A spokesman for the group told The Broad that despite all their ardent fundraising, “it is only through discussion about UK asylum policy and the awareness of the complex realities of displaced people that people will join our mission and create effective change.” There is a “need for a compassionate and just asylum process and reinforces the need for grassroots support through societies such as our own”.
And this is exactly what Ria is contributing: she revealed to us more of her plans, including a talk with STAR to give “a more objective account of my experiences in Colombia to provide some context”, and “have another [talk] scheduled for early December with another society, the ELSA (Edinburgh Law Students Association). It will be a similar discussion but with a more legal perspective, which should attract a different audience.” It is a collective effort of storytelling and testimony, to foreground the plight of Venezuelan individuals.
The Broad spoke with Isabella Lapadula, a reporter from Venezuela and a fourth-year English Literature and History student at the University of Edinburgh, who shared with us what Ria's efforts mean to her:
“I feel that as Venezuelans, we feel a strong conviction to shed light on the situation in our country. So to see someone who is not from Venezuela understand our plight and feel so motivated to raise awareness is both comforting and admirable.
I also gained a new perspective from Ria’s speech and her experiences at the border. I come from Caracas, the capital city, and you constantly hear these stories, but I have not had the close first-hand experience that Ria has, so listening to her and her perspective was eye-opening.”
As a budding humanitarian, Ria requires our continued attention for future projects, helping Edinburgh join the fight for greater support for those under Maduro’s regime of corruption and terror.
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