President Michel Temer said in a televised address on Tuesday that Venezuela's "tragic" situation threatened peace across South America.

Millions of Venezuelans have fled their country due to hyperinflation, and food and medicine shortages.

Brazil's move follows recent border clashes between locals and Venezuelans.

Following those clashes, President Temer sent a small contingent of troops to the border town of Pacaraima, where the unrest happened.

On Tuesday, he signed a decree which will deploy soldiers for two weeks along the border and federal roads of its northern state of Roraima.

"The problem of Venezuela is no longer one of internal politics. It is a threat to the harmony of the whole continent," Mr Temer said.

In addition to ensuring the security of Brazilians, the soldiers' role is also to look after the Venezuelan migrants' safety, the president stated.

Meanwhile, neighbouring Peru has declared a 60-day health emergency in two provinces on its northern border, after health authorities expressed concerns of the spread of diseases from migrants.

Venezuela is in its fourth year of an economic crisis, brought on by a crash in oil prices in 2014.

Four in five Venezuelans live in poverty, and people queue for hours to buy food while others are dying from a lack of medicine.

This was compounded by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's decision in August to issue a new currency to manage the country's runaway inflation - a move that caused widespread confusion.

Some 2.3 million citizens have fled the country since 2014, sparking the worst migration crisis in Latin American history, according to the United Nations.

Reuters