Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said Tuesday that his government will impose visa requirements on British citizens in response to tightened visa requirements imposed by the United Kingdom.
In a message on social media platform X, Petro said “the Colombian government will ask visas to British citizens” after Great Britain’s ambassador to Colombia, George Hobson, said that Colombians will no longer be exempt from visa requirements due to an “significant increase in the number of cases of irregular migration.”
In the two years since the lifting of the visa requirement we have seen a marked increase in the number of unjustified asylum applications.
UK ambassador George Hobson
The United Kingdom\s embassy in Colombia blamed the decision on “a minority of Colombians” who would have applied for refugee status without the evidence required by British migration authorities.
Colombia’s ambassador to London, Roy Barreras, said that asylum requests by Colombians in the UK went from six in 2021 to 940 so far this year.
The ambassador said that criminal organizations offered potential migrants “asylum kits” that may include fake threats to justify humanitarian visa requests.
Hundreds of thousands of Colombians have migrated to Europe and North America because of illegal armed groups that pose a threat to their lives and/or a lack of economic opportunities.
International law dictates that governments must provide asylum to migrants whose lives are threatened in their native country.