From Khartoum to Buenaventura: Colombia and Latin America a Destination for Refugees?

Every so often a story of a unique nature, crossing many different previously unrelated countries and debates arises when studying Latin America and globalisation. Colombia has now become one of the destinations for migrants who wish to go to the US, but originally coming from Africa, as opposed to from the rest of Latin America. Many issues involving African migrants relate to threatened Somalis going to Yemen and Saudi Arabia as well as economic migrants coming into Europe, in both cases via make shift boats or via smugglers that overload otherwise structurally sound smaller boats. The debate surrounding African migrants has dominated migration and human rights issues in both regions. The issue of legal rights and security for African migrants has become one of the most difficult policy concerns to address for many in the Middle East and Europe. Detailed accounts of lives being lost at sea, and refugees being returned to Africa has constantly headlined papers in Spain, Italy, Malta, Portugal and the EU as a whole. Accounts from human rights agencies have often criticised inhumane treatment of African boat people by the government of Yemen and even EU border patrols in the Mediterranean and between the African coast and the Spanish territory of the Canary Islands. Now African migrants are showing up in the Caribbean, and it is curious to find out how and why this is occurring so far away from Africa.

Cesar Sabogal who writes for the South African publication Mail & Guardian Online published an article this past weekend on the movement of African migrants towards Colombia specifically. According to Colombia’s head of intelligence and migration service, African migrants choose Colombia as a destination in the Americas due to its access to the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean and its close proximity to Central American ports to help gain access into the US. Many claim refugee status in Colombia as well, despite Colombia having one of the highest rates of internally displaced citizens in the world. Many people trafficking networks have sprung up in Colombia; in some cases being run by African’s themselves. In 2009 alone, Colombia expelled 285 African and Asian citizens, with the average African paying approximately $5000USD to be trafficked into the US. Colombian officials also pointed out that many traffickers end up working with or for drug traffickers as well, trading information on routes to access Central America and the US. While many African migrants claim refugee status in Colombia, it is difficult to know who is a refugee for human rights issues and who is an economic refugee. Most migrants who reached Colombia were from Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Benin, Zimbabwe, Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia, according to the foreign ministry. Colombia also receives migrants from Asia, but most are African migrants who often come to Colombia’s port of Buenaventura.

African migrants to Latin America do not only arrive in Colombia according to Luis Andres Henao of the same publication above. In his November 2009 article, he discusses the number of Africans seeking refugee status in Argentina and Brazil. With restrictions in Europe now becoming increasingly enforced against many African asylum seekers, countries in the Americas have become a second distant options. In Brazil alone, 65% of asylum seekers originate from Africa, and in Argentina, 3000 African refugees now reside with 1000 refugees a year coming into the country from abroad, mostly from Africa. This growth trend comes with increasing security in Europe and will likely increase exponentially as trade flows from Asia and Africa grow with the Southern Cone and refugee policies remain the same in Colombia, Argentina and Brazil. A debate might arise, as immigration in North America is often seen as adding to nations already full of immigrants in addition to the same issue and the rationale in Europe as creating a young workforce to support the tax base for the large number of retired people that will become an issue in most developed countries in the near future. In Latin America however, which is a relatively young population, and the source of many émigrés to North America and Europe might see refugees from Africa as defying the cultural norms and displacing work that many locals do require. This traditional immigrant debate will be one of interest if the African and Asian refugee trend continues to the region, as Argentina, Brazil and Colombia have also had large numbers of immigrants come to their shores in the past, and have made for an intriguing cultural dynamic in Latin America.