'They rape you, they rob you': Venezuelan refugees fleeing destitution face new dangers across the border

Those arriving in Colombia are often forced to sleep on the street, leaving them vulnerable to armed gangs, as Naomi Larsson reports

Ruely Adriana Gonzalez and her children in a UN camp in Colombia. The family have no possessions, no money, no contacts (Photos by Naomi Larsson/The Independent)

Ruely Adriana Gonzalez sits on a thin mattress as her three children lie slumped beside her in the tent, dozing in the afternoon heat.

Outside, kids fly handmade kites between the rows of white tents here in the Colombian desert, a dry plain scattered with green bushes and cacti.

At 37 years of age, Gonzalez has a youthful smile, but her face bears the strain of the long journey to get to this camp in Maicao, a city close to the Venezuelan border, the place she will call home for the next month.