Colombia will give citizenship to more than 24,000 undocumented children of Venezuelan refugees born in the country, a rare humanitarian measure amid tightening migration policies elsewhere in the hemisphere.

“Today Colombia gives this message to the world: to those who want to use xenophobia for political goals, we take the path of fraternity,” President Iván Duque of Colombia said in a speech announcing the measure in Bogotá, the capital, on Monday.

The measure will grant a path to Colombian passports to babies born to Venezuelan parents on Colombian territory from August 2015 until August 2021, making it easier for them to access education and health care, and preventing an explosion of statelessness in Colombia.

“My baby boy will finally have a state that will take care of him,” said Katherine Fuentes, 28, a Venezuelan migrant in Bogotá who gave birth in Colombia ten months ago. “He will now be able to say proudly that he is from here, that the Colombian state accepted him.”