UNHCR established very good relations with the GIR (MFA Refugee’s Internal Working Group) and provided technical assistance on complementary protection measures, humanitarian visas and Country of Origin Information (COI) among others. UNHCR held two workshops with the RSD commission (CONARE) on procedural standards and interviewing techniques. Recent decisions reflect a considerable improvement in the quality and depth of RSD analysis.
UNHCR provided training on International Refugee Law to 143 people including from MFA, Colombian Institute for Family Welfare (ICBF), Protection Cluster, and universities from Cúcuta, Medellín, Villavicencio and Quibdó.
UNHCR established an alliance with SENA (National Learning Service), who provided a training on entrepreneurship opportunities to 18 refugees, and supported six cases to develop/strengthen income generating projects with UNHCR funds.
Some 5 people were assisted with language training and 14 were supported to complete secondary education.
The Office analysed the national administrative practice regarding Best Interests Determination and started working with the ICBF on referral mechanisms.
UNHCR provided training on SGBV for a group of 26 mainly Venezuelan asylum seekers and refugees, most of whom were women and children. Identifying alliances to provide psychosocial care for asylum seekers was highlighted as a key need in this context.
In co-ordination with the National Secretariat of Pastoral Social (SNPS) and other support networks, UNHCR provided legal assistance to asylum seekers and refugees; a total of 416 people received orientation and guidance in this respect in Bogotá.
A total of 87 cases (vulnerable refugees and asylum-seekers) received basic subsistence allowance through cash-based interventions.
However, despite joint UNHCR-GIR efforts, the MFA did not recognize in 2016 Venezuelans asylum seekers under the broader definition of the Cartagena Declaration. During the reporting period, a total of 2 eligibility committees were conducted and 32 refugees were recognized in the first instance (all but two were from 2015). Regarding statelessness, Decree 330/2016 promulgated the 1961 Convention, formalizing its deposition and subsequent national legislation implementing process. A Memorandum of Understanding for training on statelessness was signed with the National Civil Registry. UNHCR provided training on the prevention of statelessness to 100 people, including civil servants from the RNEC, migratory officials, members of the judicial branch, ombudsman’s office and civil society from Cúcuta and Arauca.
UNHCR worked with the MFA’s Nationality Coordinator on a draft law to facilitate naturalization for stateless people, and lobbying for the inclusion of a paragraph that would facilitate the naturalization for refugees. Promoting better coordination among RNEC, Superintendence of Public Notaries (in charge of nationality at birth) and the MFA (in charge of nationality by acquisition) will continue to be a main focus.
UNHCR also promoted follow-up to the implementation of the Brazil Plan of Action with representatives of Colombian civil society, resulting in an increased role by NGOs in calling attention on mixed migration flows such as that of nearly 4,000 Cubans and Haitians who were stranded at the border with Panama in mid-2016.
Main constraints included the fact that the rights to work and documentation for asylum seekers are still not effective, and asylum seekers are not included in the Government’s welfare programmes for “vulnerable populations”. The access to RSD procedures was also insufficient, and several provisions of the RSD decree fall short of international standards, including the fact that border officials are no longer receiving asylum applications from asylum seekers considered to be “in transit”. Likewise the RSD practice of the Government has become increasingly restrictive.