Refugio y desplazamiento interno: entrecruzamientos de las migraciones en Colombia

El presente artículo reflexiona sobre lo que las formas de migración forzada tienen en común, más allá de las distinciones que hace el derecho.

Published on March 21, 2022

Carolina Moreno V. | lanid, IDPs, Refugees, Conflict, Violence, Protection, Americas (inc Caribbean)

Photo credit: Colombia. Venezuelans prepare their luggage to continue their journey through the mountains. 2019 © UNHCR/Hélène Caux

El presente texto explora el refugio y el desplazamiento interno como formas de migración o movilidad humana. En este análisis se presta especial atención a las consecuencias que se derivan de cada uno de los marcos jurídicos de estas expresiones de movilidad, con el fin de acotar sus ámbitos de aplicación, así como los vacíos de protección que emergen en cada caso. Este trabajo, además, construye sobre la literatura preexistente que ha estudiado las conexiones entre el desplazamiento interno y el refugio. El trabajo analiza la respuesta del Estado colombiano a la población migrante, interna y externa; y a partir de allí, estudia las maneras en las cuales la compartimentalización del derecho explica diferentes niveles de protección, según la forma de movilidad o migración. El texto muestra cómo el derecho define categorías, fija fronteras, legitima unos actores y desconoce otros, establece determinados regímenes de protección, pero también crea vacíos de protección.

Carolina Moreno V. es Profesora asociada de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia), Directora del Centro de Estudios en Migración (CEM) y co-fundadora de la Clínica Jurídica para Migrantes de la Universidad de los Andes, y un Miembro de Latin American Network on Internal Displacement (LANID).

LANID Special Issue: “Perspectivas críticas sobre el desplazamiento forzado”

La Red Latinoamericana de Desplazamiento Interno (LANID) reúne académicos, activistas, artistas y profesionales interesados en reflexionar sobre el desplazamiento interno. A través de esta colección de estudios se busca ampliar el conocimiento sobre este fenómeno, así como promover la discusión sobre el mismo. El carácter multidimensional de este tipo de movilidad humana, así como la complejidad de sus causas y la necesidad de buscar nuevos caminos para el logro de soluciones duraderas que permitan a las personas afectadas superar su condición de vulnerabilidad, constituyen el común denominador de estos trabajos.

Este Working Paper fue escrito por la autora dentro del marco del proyecto “Interdisciplinary Network on Internal Displacement, Conflict and Protection” (AH /T005351/1), apoyado por el Arts and Humanities Research Council, en nombre del UKRI Global Challenge Research Fund.

Download RID Working Paper No. 19

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

Researching Internal Displacement publishes engaging and insightful short pieces of writing, artistic and research outputs, policy briefings and think pieces on internal displacement.

We welcome contributions from academics, practitioners, researchers, officials, artists, poets, writers, musicians, dancers, postgraduate students and people affected by internal displacement.

Contact the Editorial Team

How to Contribute

False Narratives and the Reality of History: The Deportation of Soviet Koreans in 1937

By German Kim, Ekaterina Pesegova (transl.) | Jun 4, 2026

This working paper highlights the relatively unknown deportation of Soviet Koreans, the first of several state deportations based on ethnicity carried out by the Soviet Union. The forced displacement, mainly to Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, was highly classified during Soviet times, leading to misunderstandings and subsequent misrepresentations of the event by Western scholars and the creation of multiple inaccurate narratives, including that of ethnic cleansing. By conducting an interdisciplinary study, the author critically analyses widespread misconceptions about the deportation of the Soviet Koreans and provides objective data on the issue and its long-lasting effects on the Soviet Koreans who survived deportation and their descendants.

Rethinking Planned Relocation as Social Protection In an Era of Increasing Climate Change Risks

By Tomy Ncube and Una Murray | Mar 12, 2026

As climate impacts intensify, planned relocation is increasingly deployed as an adaptation strategy, yet outcomes for relocated communities remain consistently adverse. This paper argues that these failures stem from the treatment of planned relocation as a short-term, projectised disaster response rather than as a long-term developmental intervention. Drawing on social protection theory, this paper reconceptualises planned relocation as a form of social assistance, capable of delivering durable solutions. It demonstrates that planned relocation inherently performs preventive, protective, promotive, and potentially transformative social protection functions by minimising future climate risks, providing non-contributory transfers such as land and housing, and enabling livelihood reconstruction. However, when implemented outside formal social protection systems, these functions may collapse, often resulting in impoverishment and protracted displacement.

Moving Towards Solutions: Addressing Loss and Damage from Protracted Displacement in Bangladesh

By Steve Miron, Dyuti Tasnuva Rifat, Tanjib Islam | Feb 25, 2026

Researching Internal Displacement is pleased to make this case study available as a stand-alone publication. Excerpted from a recent research and advocacy report by the Refugee Law Initiative, this case study of an urban informal settlement in Tongi, Bangladesh, examines the lived experience of loss and damage among people displaced in the context of climate change and left behind in climate action. Encouragingly, the case study also highlights a promising 'good practice' development intervention by the SAJIDA Foundation. In the case study, programme participants describe how Sajida’s multifaceted approach, which empowers women and girls, encourages positive behaviour change and prioritises psychosocial wellbeing across multiple programme workstreams, has helped restore agency, self-sufficiency and hope. SAJIDA’s programme shows how protracted displacement and associated losses and damages can be addressed and are not inevitable.