Bogota’s Superior Court has suspended the payment of COP30 billion ($16 million) in compensation to 1,500 displaced Colombians by presidential aid agency Accion Social, Semana reports.
Accion Social won its second appeal against the ruling that the compensation be extradited, on the grounds that humantarian aid is “temporary and immediate and is intended to help” and should not be handed out retrospectively.
The court also declared inadmissible past cases similar to the present appeal and pointed out there are other organizations apart from Accion Social who are responsible for helping displaced Colombians, including those that comprise the National System for Unified Attention to the Displaced Population.
Colombia has the second largest population of internal refugees in the world, after Sudan. Latest estimates from the U.N. say forced displacement affects 3.3 million Colombians, around 7% of the population.