Colombia is home to one of the world’s largest populations of displaced people, according to a study by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Half a century of war has uprooted a total of almost six million Colombians to date; a statistic which places the country second only to Syria with Nigeria at third, according to the latest data from the International Displacement Monitoring Center.
In 2013, the number of victims across the world increased by six million, compared with 2012, said the UN study on displacement across the world, presented by High Commissioner Antonio Guterres.
Meanwhile, the number of people displaced in Colombia fell by 32% from 2012 to 2013, according to a joint report by the Colombian government and a local NGO released earlier this month.
MORE: Number of Colombians displaced by violence fell by almost a third in 2013
Displacement in Colombia remains “high, nonetheless” and is not to be considered less of a concern, said Marco Romero, Director of human rights and displacement consultancy, CODHES, in an interview with Colombia Reports following the agency’s release of the latest statistics earlier this month.
The UN High Commission for Refugees is working with Colombian authorities to promote local integration of displaced people into cities, as “more than half the number of registered internally displaced people (IDPs) reside in cities and are unable or unwilling to return to their communities of origin,” according to the UNHCR’s website.
The UN reports that their Transitional Solutions Initiative (TSI) targets 17 communities, prioritizing “local integration, relocation and returnee processes.”
Sources
- Interview with Colombia Reports: Marco Romero, Director of CODHES (Human Rights and Displacement Consultancy)
- 2014 UNHCR country operations profile – Colombia (UNHCR)
- Latest IDP Numbers By Country (International Displacement Monitoring Center)
- World Refugee Day: Global forced displacement tops 50 million for first time in post-World War II era (UNHCR)