Transformation in the dynamics of internal displacement in Colombia in times of migration

This paper analyses how internal displacement and cross-border migration converge in contexts of multiple risks and rapid change, as in the case of the Colombian-Venezuelan border.

Published on July 21, 2022

Ana María Ríos Laverde | lanid, IDPs, Refugees, International migration, Americas (inc Caribbean)

Colombia. Puente Internacional Simón Bolivar. 2017 © Ana María Rios Laverde

Five years after the signing of the Peace Agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas, the cycle of violence and forced displacement has not ceased in Colombia. Disputes over territorial control persist but under a reconfiguration of dominance, marked by an expansion of the armed conflict to border areas and the proliferation of illegal armed structures with complex organizational and operational forms. These new risk scenarios that have emerged during the post-agreement period have influenced the variation of internal forced displacement patterns at the geographic, demographic and temporal levels. The growing mixed migratory wave that has arrived in the country as a result of the crisis in Venezuela is an additional element of analysis of the dimensions and impacts of this phenomenon. This paper seeks to analyze how internal displacement and cross-border migration converge in contexts of multiple risks and rapid evolution as is the case of the Colombian-Venezuelan border in the Colombian departments of Arauca and Norte de Santander. For this purpose, the research will focus on analyzing the current behavior of organized violence and its impact on the new trends and manifestations of internal displacement, as well as the points of contact with other forms of human mobility that arrive and transit through this area.

Ana María Ríos Laverde is a lawyer with a Masters degree in Human Rights from the University Friedrich Alexander Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. She has participated professionally in the implementation of public policy for assistance and reparation for victims of the Colombian armed conflict.

This paper was written by the author during her Summer Fellowship on Internal Displacement at the Internal Displacement Research Programme at the Refugee Law Initiative. The Fellowship was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, on behalf of the UKRI Global Challenge Research Fund, as part of the funded project “Interdisciplinary Network on Internal Displacement, Conflict and Protection” (AH/T005351/1).

Download RID Working Paper No. 29 (in Spanish Only)

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