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Geneva (AFP)

Former vice president of Guatemala Eduardo Stein has been appointed Joint Special Representative for Venezuelan refugees and migrants, the United Nations refugee and migration agencies announced Wednesday.

Four years of recession have seen 1.6 million people flee Venezuela since 2015, the UN says, creating a migration crisis in the region.

Stein, vice president between 2004 and 2008, will promote "a coherent and harmonised regional approach to the Venezuela situation in coordination with national governments, international organisations and other relevant stakeholders," the UNHCR and IOM said in a joint statement.

Colombia, struggling to cope with the flood of migrants from Venezuela, sent foreign minister Carlos Trujillo to Geneva to demand an emergency fund be set up and a senior official put in charge of the UN response to the crisis.

"The sooner the better," Trujillo had told reporters after meeting the new UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Monday.

Colombia, which shares a 2,200-kilometre (1,370-mile) long border with Venezuela and has taken in more than a million migrants.

"We are very concerned by the trend these figures represent because if this goes on there will be nearly four million Venezuelans outside their country at the end of the year," the minister said.

© 2018 AFP