Today a meeting on the migration crisis is held in Acandí with the participation of officials from the Attorney General’s Office, Chancellery, ICBF, Ministry of Transportation, Superintendency of Ports and Transportation, Army, Police, National Navy, Prosecutor’s Office, governors of Antioquia and Chocó and mayors of the region.
The aim is to verify how the strategies adopted to address the high flow of irregular migrants are progressing (more than 464,000 so far in 2023 according to figures from Migration Colombia), who have arrived in Urabá and Darién from different parts of the country with the aim of crossing the border with Panama on the route to the United States.
The routes that cross the Darién jungle start through Acandí until they reach the border with Panama.
From there, the Delegate Attorney for Human Rights, Javier Sarmiento and his team, will evaluate, together with the summoned entities, the context of risks and specific effects on maritime transport in the area, such as the high costs of maritime transport of migrants compared to what that is charged to tourists ($170,000 Vs $70,000 per person), the high costs for the use of toilets for them at the docks, the mandatory use of handcuffs to identify migrants, and the false reports that shipping companies would be presenting in the Foreigners Registry, SIRE, among others.
The status of implementation of the plans and strategies established by the different entities to protect, accompany and guarantee the rights of migrant individuals and families in their maritime transit through this area of the country will also be evaluated, following the 48 recommendations delivered by the Attorney General’s Office in its preventive report on the Migration Crisis on January 23, 2023.