Defender: Colombia needs deep measures with migration

He Ombudsman of Colombia, Carlos Camargohe called on both Colombia and neighboring countries to agree and take “fundamental measures” to face the humanitarian crisis experienced by the increase in the flow of migrants to North America.

“The (Colombian) government must review the measures it has to adopt, but they cannot be hot water wipers, they must be fundamental measures,” Camargo told EFE, who admitted that this is not a “demand” only for Colombia, because it really is “Colombian government embroiled in transcontinental problem”.

More than 300,000 people have crossed dangerously Darien Gapdense and mountainous jungle that separates Colombia and Panamaso far this year, a record number that continues to grow.

“In July, for example, 57,387 people of different nationalities crossed the border, which is significantly more than the one recorded in July 2022, when 29,722 migrants crossed the border,” explained the defender.

And to that is added concrete data, such as that in the first half of this year, 40,171 children and adolescents crossed, while in the same period in 2022 there were 7,369, that is, “an incredible increase of 445 percent”.

Faced with this situation, the Panamanian authorities, who condemned the inaction of the Colombians, decided to change the focus of the crisis from a “humanitarian problem to a national security (crisis)” and even went so far as to blame international organizations that speak of migration as a human right. .

But “human mobility is a human right”, asserted the representative of the state organization for human rights, so “states must always provide all guarantees to their population that is in human mobility in order to be able to develop migration processes in conditions of human dignity, regularity and order”.

Therefore, with regard to the increase in the flow of people crossing the border, “repeat to the states to take basic measures, measures that allow for the regulation of migration control,” Camargo asked.

“The problem has been overdiagnosed. What I fully believe in and believe is that there will be a strengthening, institutional presence of the entire national government (in that area),” said the defender.

JOINT DECISIONS

However, the ombudsman recognizes the limits of strengthening this institutional presence, since Darién is an area with limited access, not only because of the circumstances of the jungle itself – rivers, mountains, dangerous animals – but also because there is “territorial control that he achieved Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC) Gaitanista, Gulf Clan“.

“We have already seen enough unfortunate episodes so that we call on the illegal armed groups that we need to take advantage of the whole process of the peace policy proposed by the national government,” Camargo demanded.

In addition to this strengthening, the ombudsman considered that “the Colombian government must be in constant dialogue, in constant dialogue and communication with the other governments involved, with Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, so that there are decisions from their geographical borders”.

“To the Colombian state, as well as other states, tell them and encourage them to have a true commitment to this migration problem, which is not the exclusive situation of Colombia, but that Colombia as a state, the national government must take significant measures, measures that allow this situation to be contained,” he insisted.