Colombian town of Necocli, collapsed by migration crisis

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Colombian municipality of Necoclí, which is part of Antioquia province and a short boat ride away from Panama, has collapsed by a recent unprecedented migratory crisis, with some 9,000 people seeking to reach Panama on their way to North America.

The mayor of this town of some 40,000 inhabitants, José Augusto Tobón, decreed a public calamity and asked the National Government for help in a situation that exceeds the capacities of the local authorities.

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The official has assured the media that it is “the worst crisis in the history” of his municipality because thousands of migrants have not been able to buy tickets to continue their journey to Panama.

The migrants seeking to reach other coastal areas by boat to enter the Darien Gap, the dangerous border jungle between Panama and Colombia, and continue on their way to North America.

“We have collapsed health, public services, and food systems. We don’t know what is going to happen to us, we have a health emergency because these people are not vaccinated, and we are still under the effects of covid,” Tobón told CM& news program.

According to Migración Colombia, more than 25,000 foreigners, mostly Haitians heading to Panama on their way to North America, have irregularly entered Colombia this year.

However, the Ombudsman’s Office has made “observation missions,” according to a record of 33,000 people coming from Haiti, Cuba, Chile, Senegal, and Ghana, among other countries, who have transited irregularly so far this year through the borders.

STATE ATTENTION

President Iván Duque called this Thursday for a regional response to this type of situation precisely to prevent what is happening at this moment in Necoclí from happening again.

“We have to put more controls, we have to be able to cooperate with Panama and other countries, but the people who access this border do not stay there, they want to continue north and end up near the southern border of the United States,” said the president in a virtual chat at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York.

For his part, the Ombudsman, Carlos Camargo, traveled to that Caribbean locality to verify the situation occurring for more than ten days because “the departure of boats has been affected because the transportation companies do not have the capacity to provide the service”.

“Every day about 850 people leave Necoclí and 1,500 more enter the municipality, that is to say, that every day the number of detained migrants increases, which requires a contingency plan to overcome the crisis,” said the ombudsman.

Meanwhile, a special police component was sent to Necoclí to guarantee the safety of the inhabitants and migrants.

ORIGIN OF MIGRATION

The director of Migration Colombia, Juan Francisco Espinosa, explained in a press conference that the “most relevant” antecedent of this situation is the earthquake that devastated Haiti on January 12, 2010.

“From that moment on, there was a massive outflow of Haitians who were received mainly in Brazil and later in Chile. Due to different migratory measures of some countries, they have undertaken a new trip, not to return to Haiti but to look for alternatives, mainly in the north of the continent”, he explained.

Colombian authorities point out that migrants who venture through the Darien Gap are prey to coyotes, the immigrant smugglers who charge high sums to take them through the intricate jungle, and often travelers perish in that journey.

Until 2016, most of those passing from Colombia to Panama were from Asia or Africa, but between that year and 2020, the number of Cubans increased, and the number of Asians decreased. Since 2018, Haitians predominate, traveling in full families.