CUCUTA, Colombia – The executive director for the Americas of Human Rights Watch, Jose Miguel Vivanco, called on Friday on the Latin American countries affected by the Venezuelan migration crisis to unify their criteria to find solutions to the problem.

Vivanco, speaking at a press conference on the Colombian side of the Simon Bolivar International Bridge, a few meters from the border with Venezuela, said the governments of Latin America should adopt unified criteria that are not temporary or patched together solutions.

He said these policies would allow the region to offer protection to Venezuelans who are fleeing the country because of the conditions there.

Vivanco said they should have coordinated policies to allow families access to health and education services.

He said the criteria could be achieved at the meetings that are being held at the regional level both at the Organization of American States and in Quito.

Vivanco was visiting the city of Cucuta in the company of the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, and the Colombian Foreign Minister, Carlos Holmes Trujillo Garcia.