Our main message is clear: more lasting and effective cooperation between the European Union (EU) and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) States requires a comprehensive approach that protects the rights of the most vulnerable communities, especially refugees, migrants, displaced people, and those who are confined or whose mobility has been restricted.
Leave No One Behind
The integration of refugees, returnees, migrants, and displaced people (RMDs) is not only a humanitarian response, but also a strategy that drives development. Their inclusion in host communities strengthens local economies, energises the labour market and contributes to social cohesion. There is strong evidence that countries that make greater efforts to integrate refugees and migrants gain significant economic benefits. For example, analysis from the World Bank show that, in Peru, for every dollar invested in the integration of Venezuelan refugees and migrants, the country receives a return of 2.6 dollars. This is important because 8 out of 10 people (or most people) want to stay in the host country where they are, but face integration barriers such as lack of documentation, employment and access to basic services, according to R4V analysis.
Protection is the first step towards integration
For integration to be possible, it is essential to first guarantee legal protection and access to basic services such as health, nutrition, education, and other fundamental rights. This involves strengthening asylum systems for those requiring international protection, as well as expanding opportunities for regularisation and legal stay mechanisms. Protection is the gateway to integration, and integration is the foundation for more inclusive, stable, and prosperous societies.
Causes of displacement: a regional protection crisis
Despite progress in recent decades and the efforts of States in the region, in 2025 Latin America and the Caribbean faces multiple protection crises. Violence, conflict, organised crime, structural inequality, and the climate crisis have forced more than 21 million people to leave their homes (UNHCR 2025). Of these, around 7 million require international protection (UNHCR, 2025). Emblematic cases such as Haiti, Ecuador, Colombia and Honduras show how violence and, in some cases, the collapse of essential services force millions to flee. In Haiti, over 1.4 million people are internally displaced (IOM 2025); in Ecuador, 100,000 people were displaced in the last year alone due to conflict and violence (IDMC GRID 2025).
These dynamics not only generate human suffering, but also slow development and weaken regional stability. All this is happening amid a drastic reduction in international funding, which is seriously affecting humanitarian response capacity. For example, compared to the previous year, we are only reaching half of the people in need of urgent assistance, with particularly severe impacts on specialised protection services for women, children. Although funding is decreasing, needs are not.
An opportunity to transform cooperation
Today, within the framework of the CELAC-EU Summit, international cooperation has the opportunity to intervene decisively and join bi-regional efforts to change the course of a situation that is worsening. At the same time, it can protect the investments and achievements made and contribute to improving current conditions in the region. Organised crime not only transcends borders, but also continents. It is time to transform vicious cycles of conflict and violence into virtuous circles between humanitarian and development. This requires political commitment and regional solutions to connected crises such as forced displacement, transnational crime, xenophobia, and the lack of opportunities for integration, especially in border areas.
Although Latin America and the Caribbean is recognised as a key region for international cooperation focused on economic opportunities, this approach must also prioritise people-centred responses. This includes sustained humanitarian and development funding to support the integration of displaced populations. Overlooking support to these populations risk undermining the sustainability and impact of broader investments. The solidarity that the countries of the region have shown for years towards their neighbours can be strengthened thanks to investments and agreements with the European Union, an allied region that shares the same social values, human rights, stability and prosperity.
We call on the governments of LAC and the EU to:
- Recognise that the region is facing several protection crises together with their causes of displacement. Such causes seriously affect the stability of the region and should be an issue of fundamental interest to the European Union and the countries in LAC.
- Adopt a humanitarian-development-peace nexus approach, which allows for sustainable responses adapted to cross-border dynamics.
- Increase investment in development and integration programmes across the Global Gateway strategy, enabling displaced people to contribute to the development of their host communities.
- Maintain and increase funding, especially to protect the most vulnerable populations such as indigenous communities, Afro-descendants, children, youth, women, persons with disabilities, and persons in displacement situations.
- Strengthen regional mechanisms in LAC to prevent human rights violations and provide protection to people affected by displacement and confinements, recognising that restrictions on mobility seriously affect access to goods and services.
- Strengthen and invest in asylum, complementary protection, regularisation and legal stay mechanisms, promoting the protection and integration of refugees and migrants who wish to stay in their host countries, or who cannot return to their places of origin.
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The LACRMD Coalition brings together 23 international NGOs with regional presence in Latin America and the Caribbean, and coordinates with NGO forums in each country. The Humanitarian NGO Forum in Colombia includes 40 international and national humanitarian NGOs, the INGO Forum in Venezuela includes 40 international NGOs, the Permanent Forum on Human Mobility in Ecuador includes 19 national and international NGOs, and the NGO Forum in Guatemala includes 16 national and international humanitarian NGOs.