The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Controversy over Claudia López's proposal to create a police command to identify migrants

2021-08-21T00:09:05.060Z


The mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López, proposed the creation of a police command to identify migrants in the city. This generated numerous criticisms, both locally, nationally and internationally. The idea of ​​creating a police force aimed at foreigners raised doubts about xenophobia both in sectors of the government itself and in organizations that defend the rights of migrants.


Claudia López, mayor of Bogotá.

Credit: DANIEL MUNOZ / AFP via Getty Images

(CNN Spanish) -

The mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López, proposed the creation of a police command to identify migrants in the city. This generated numerous criticisms, both locally, nationally and internationally. The idea of ​​creating a police force aimed at foreigners raised doubts about xenophobia both in sectors of the government itself and in organizations that defend the rights of migrants.


But López rejected those accusations and insisted that his concern was fighting crime in the capital through identification and prosecution mechanisms. “There are many people who enter illegally to do improper and illegal things in our city. When we capture them and we do not have information about that person, who they are and what their identity is, we cannot give it to the prosecutor or the judge, ”López said in a video posted on his official Twitter account. "Therefore, that person ends up being free, generating impunity and greater insecurity," added the mayor.

Nationality has nothing to do with crime, but impunity does increase crime and insecurity.

Criminals are not going to line up at Immigration for us to identify and prosecute them.

We have to go out, identify them and capture them to prosecute them.

pic.twitter.com/8jRZCmhnTs

- Claudia López 👍 (@ClaudiaLopez) August 19, 2021

López had asked Migración Colombia to carry out a joint patrol in order to be able to forcibly identify people on the street.

advertising

However, Migración Colombia rejected the idea.

"We have to make a very careful crusade with words, never to generalize, to stigmatize," said Juan Francisco Espinosa, director of Migration Colombia, at a press conference.

"The creation of commands or joint mechanisms of authorities including Migración Colombia police is an exclusive competence of the national government," he said regarding the mayor's proposal.

In that sense, he clarified that "there is no type of creation of this mechanism" in the plans of the government of Iván Duque.

"What we all have to do is work in the defense of Colombians in the different cities and in the protection of migrants," said Espinosa.

  • Colombia will begin to vaccinate young people between 15 and 19 years old against covid-19

The mayor said that she respected but did not share the position of Migración Colombia.

"If we do not go to the streets and make forced identification so that we can present [the criminal] to the prosecutor and the judge, then there will continue to be violence and impunity," he said.

And he clarified: “Obviously this has nothing to do with nationality.

It is not nationality that explains the crime, but impunity ”.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), on the other hand, expressed its rejection of the proposal of the mayor of Bogotá.

In a post on Twitter, he asked the Colombian authorities to "adopt measures to prevent and eliminate discriminatory situations that perpetuate stigmatization and practices of intolerance and criminalization based on the immigration situation."

#Colombia 🇨🇴 @CIDH expresses concern about the announcement of the creation of a joint operations command to combat crime of "criminals from the migrant population", carried out by the mayor of Bogotá, after the end of the Security Council meeting.

1

- IACHR - IACHR (@CIDH) August 18, 2021

Although she did not mention the nationality of the foreigners that motivated her proposals, it is not the first time that the mayor has generated reactions from critics who describe her words as xenophobic.

In October 2020, after a criminal act that was echoed in the press, López said: "I do not want to stigmatize Venezuelans, but there are some immigrants involved in criminality who are making our lives squares."

After that episode, the mayor made public excuses and assured that she did not want to stigmatize.

A communication problem?

“There is a perception of insecurity quite large and also a perception that it is related to migration.

However, what you see is that of the entire population, Venezuelan migrants linked to arrests are few, so the stigma is unfair, ”Hernando Zuleta, a professor at the Universidad de los Andes and former director of the Centers for Studies on Security and Drugs of Colombia.

“The fundamental problem is that there are Venezuelans linked to crimes that are not registered in Colombia.

And then there are two options: deport them or set them free, ”Zuleta explained.

“It seems to me that this is the reason behind the announcement of the mayor.

But then there is a presentation problem.

The feeling that the message gives is that they are going to create a commando to persecute Venezuelans in the street ”.

In that sense, he argued that, if the mayor's objective is to register migrants, "she can raise that without talking about criminality."

Zuleta told CNN that in Colombia there has been "a tradition of sporadic raids by the police to request documents," but that "today it is less strong than it was years ago."

“A policeman in Colombia can stop any citizen and ask for identification.

It is not so usual today, but it can do it, "said Zuleta.

But he stressed that "the sensation given by [the mayor's] announcement is that they are planning police raids looking for Venezuelans."

Zuleta indicated that he does not know any antecedents of this type of police command in the world.

“Some will say that the Nazi police did that, but they did not pursue crime.

This is something else, "he said.

  • Claudia López, mayor of Bogotá: Neither rebellion nor repression will solve the social outbreak in Colombia, they will aggravate it

The damage of the message

"There are two critical elements to question this type of decision," Pablo Ceriani, director of the Specialization in Migration, Asylum and Human Rights at the University of Lanús (Argentina) told CNN.

"The first has to do with the damage generated by the message itself."

In this sense, he pointed out that Colombia is going through a particularly sensitive context, since for the first time in decades "it is a recipient of the migrant and refugee population" that arrives in "a significant magnitude".

"The transformation of the social fabric is very intense and fast," said Ceriani.

Added to this are "the serious conflicts that the country has in terms of security in general and the survival of the armed conflict."

"In such a sensitive context, this message, whether implemented or not, already causes real harm, which can take a long time to reverse," said Ceriani.

Another concern of the mayor's message for Ceriani is that "it could lead to a relationship of harassment, violence, mistreatment, abuse through the passage of different security forces towards the population of migrant origin."

Finally, Ceriani points out that it is a "security perspective error" since the percentage of foreigners linked to crime in Colombia "is minimal."

As a figure, it stands out that only 0.6% of the prisoners in Colombian prisons are foreigners.

Euthanasia in Colombia: what you should know 2:57

"If there are indicators of the need to reinforce security, this type of measure does the opposite, because it takes resources where they are not necessary," he said.

On the existence of a history of this type of police command, Ceriani said: "As far as I know, the attempts to create this type of police force in other parts of the world were not implemented."

As an example, he recalled what happened in Ecuador in 2019, when a woman was murdered by a man of Venezuelan nationality.

The news caused such an impact that former President Lenín Moreno announced on Twitter the "immediate formation of brigades to control the legal situation of Venezuelan immigrants in the streets, workplaces and the border."

This measure provoked the rejection of various sectors and was never implemented.

As for whether there are selective practices on the part of the police forces when requesting identity accreditation from people on the street, Ceriani said that "these attitudes exist."

He pointed out that in many countries there is discrimination in this regard based on “skin color or the way of speaking or dressing”.

“That's why these speeches [like the mayor's] are serious.

Because they come to legitimize these practices and expand them ”, concluded Ceriani.

Venezuelan migration figures

According to calculations by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Colombia is home to 1.7 million Venezuelans.

This represents more than 37 percent of the 4.6 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants currently hosted by Latin American and Caribbean countries.


Data: https://www.acnur.org/noticias/press/2021/6/60c824cd4/acnur-oim-y-sus-socios-hacen-un-llamado-para-que-las-personas-refugiadas.html

In May 2021, the government of President Iván Duque began to implement the Temporary Statute for the Protection of Venezuelan Migrants with the aim of promoting the regularization of migration from Venezuela.

This measure was praised by the United Nations (UN).

"This important act of solidarity will allow approximately one third of the 5 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants in the region to formally access services and contribute to the Colombian economy," said the spokesman for the UN Secretary General António Guterres, in a statement issued in February, when the Colombian government announced the plan.

  • 1.2 million Venezuelans pre-register for the Temporary Protection Statute in Colombia

Migración Colombia explained that 1,070,000 socioeconomic surveys have already been carried out on Venezuelan migrants.

In addition, he explained that 22% of the migrants from Venezuela in Colombia are minors that "you have to support, you have to shelter," said Espinosa, director of the organization.

Espinosa also stressed that the temporary statute is "a great highway to access the health system, the education system, financial inclusion and be able to move forward in life", under a "fraternal immigration policy led by President Iván Duque ”.

Claudia Lopez

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2021-08-21

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z
News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.