THE GUARDIAN: Living a daily tragedy': Venezuelans struggle to survive in Colombia →

Axleny Machado has slept on a piece of foam outside Maicao’s main bus terminal since she arrived from Venezuela a year ago. She’s one of thousands who live this way in the arid border city in La Guajira, northern Colombia, which is now struggling with the huge influx of migrants and refugees.

Machado, 24, has a small trolley she rents for 90p a day to sell cigarettes, coffee and sweets to commuters. If lucky, she makes about £4 a day – enough to look after herself. She wants to leave Maicao for another Colombian city and look for opportunities, but money doesn’t permit.

Axleny Machado at the bus terminal in Maicao, where she sleeps on a piece of foam. Photograph: Steven Grattan