The exodus of migrants from Venezuela is building towards a “crisis moment” comparable to the European refugee crisis of 2015, the UN has warned.

Thousands of people flee the country every day, traveling by bus or sometimes by foot along migration routes across South America.

They flee an economic collapse that has left food and basic medicine scarce while armed gangs rob and kill without consequence.

“There is no life for us in Venezuela,” said Boris Guevara, 22, standing by piled luggage and his four friends at the bustling Venezuelan border in Cucuta, Colombia. “All of the young people are migrating to support our families and search for a better life, because everybody needs to eat.”

According to the UN, more than two million Venezuelans have fled their country since 2014, the year after populist revolutionary leader Hugo Chavez died, handing power to current president Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver and Cuban-trained union organiser.