The Ombudsman, Carlos Camargo, spoke on Tuesday, July 27, on the difficult situation facing the municipality of Necoclí, in Urabá Antioqueño. It is worth remembering that, despite what was said by Migration Colombia, which denied information about the presence of nearly 10,000 migrants from Haiti, Cuba, Asia and Africa in said population, In the last hours, more images and data emerged that prove it.
“The number of people who enter the municipality is more growing than those who leave. We see that daily, approximately more than 1,000 people are arriving and only between 700 and 750 leave. The human rights situation is very worrying And that is why, from the Ombudsman’s Office, we are already waging commissions from the national level with the support of our community defenders, our regional defender. They are in coordination to review and diagnose the situation, “said the official during an interview with Noticias RCN.
According to the reports that are known so far, these migrants are crowded in Necoclí with the aim of take a boat to Capurganá, to cross to Panama and later, set out for the United States or Canada, where they intend to start a new life. However, the difficulties in finding transportation has led them to crowd the streets of the Antioquia municipality, and even to organize protests.
In this sense, the Ombudsman’s Office insisted, through its Twitter profile, on the call for the intervention of the authorities of the national, departmental and municipal order, so that begin to formulate contingency plans in the event of the possible collapse of the care networks and public services, for the damming of migrants who travel through the Darien plug route.
However, the mayor of the municipality, Jorge Tobón, warned that said failure in the municipal networks is already a fact. “Today we have 10,000 migrants, Public services, health, rents are collapsing, everything is collapsing and it worries us. Because these people are not vaccinated and we are not prepared for a humanitarian emergency ”.
Given the situation, the director of Risk Management of Necoclí, César Zúñiga, confirmed to the RCN Radio information system that local authorities are going to declare a state of public calamity.
“It is a situation that worries us because the community is affected by basic services and the accumulation of migrants on the beaches. They don’t have the culture of being in hotels while they go. They stay close to the pier, which keeps tourism away. They do not usually wear the mask and that is a risk of contagion for the population ”, he said, adding that solid waste increased by 17 tons over the weekend.
According to the Ombudsman’s Office, so far in 2021 they have passed through Colombia some 33 thousand people from Haiti, Cuba, Chile, Senegal, Ghana, among other countries. Likewise, he warned that the dam that is currently registered has been developing for at least ten days and is related to climatic factors that make it difficult for boats to leave for Capurganá.
From the mayor’s office of the municipality, for its part, a call was raised so that other cities such as Pasto, Medellín or La Guajira exercise more control over the passage of migrants, since they assure that those who are currently dammed on the beaches of Necoclí arrived by buses from said territories.
At the national government level, the head of Migration Colombia, Juan Francisco Espinosa, assured this weekend that In recent days, he met with Panamanian authorities, as well as with the Vice President and Foreign Minister, Martha Lucía Ramírez, in order to establish strategies to prevent this phenomenon from occurring.
“Colombia is not the cause or the origin of irregular migration. But nevertheless, As a country we are concerned about this situation, taking into account that migrant smuggling networks they treat people like merchandise, exposing them to dangerous situations, in which they can even lose their lives, “he said.
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