Thousands of migrants stranded on the beach of the Gulf of Urabá, the harsh reality

The migration crisis in Colombia has reached alarming levels, with hundreds of Venezuelan migrants seeking to escape poverty, violence and political persecution in their home country.

However, as they cross the border, many encounter new adversities and dangers in new territories.

TESTIMONY

Necoclí (Antioquia), October 15, 2024 (@DefensoriaCol). Karla Berturichi, a Venezuelan trans woman, left her country four years ago, as a minor, fleeing abuse, harassment and mistreatment. But those episodes of violence followed her to Colombia, where she lived through the same hell again.

“They beat me and my partner, they broke my nose. “They caught us among a group of people right here in the town, they literally hit us, kid, and they took our phone and damaged it, they robbed us,” complains Karla, now 22 years old, stating that she was attacked for being a transgender woman.

Her fellow countryman Yaneth Mar, also from one of the beaches of Necoclí, in Antioquia, says how being a migrant has brought problems to her and her family: “I have a ten-month-old son, I have him sleeping here on the street, on the beach, he has had conjunctivitis. For me, these are not human conditions.”

After being stranded for several weeks in the same Antioquian town, Venezuelan Damián Marín, who has not had money for the boat fare to take him to Acandí or Capurganá (Chocó) —on the other side of the Gulf of Urabá—, takes the role of spokesperson for those who have the same purpose of continuing their journey to North America. “There are many children, girls, people who are in need, sick, disabled people, elderly, adults, babies of months, they get sick a lot, it rains,” says Mr. Marín.

The problem for Damián and other migrants is that they are only sold the complete package, which has a value of 350 dollars per person, the equivalent of 1,470,000 Colombian pesos. It includes, in addition to the passage to one of the two towns in Chocó, the right to shelter and the guide to a jungle border point between Colombia and Panama.

He vehemently adds that he and his fellow travelers only want the destination to not continue to be elusive, “because they don’t want us on the beach anymore, they keep running us away. They keep kicking us out. What we want is to leave, for them to send us a little help to leave, from the heart.”

These are the reasons why the Ombudsman, Iris Marín Ortiz, traveled to the Urabá-Darién subregion, a host territory for migrants before entering the dense jungle. “We evaluated what is happening, we listened to the local communities, to migrants, to the authorities, with the aim of calling attention so that there is a comprehensive, real and effective response from the State,” says the Ombudsman.

Miles de migrantes varados en la playa del Golfo de Urabá la cruda realidad