Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bogota (Agenzia Fides) – On 24 June the Major Seminary of Bogota will host a national Forum “Assistance and solidarity, our mission with migrants”. In a statement sent to Fides, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Colombia underlines that the underlying theme of the event will be Pope Benedict XVI's Encyclical. Caritas in Veritate. The Forum is organised by the Department for Human Mobility of the National Office for Social Pastoral (SNPS/Caritas Colombia), in coordination with the Migrants Assistance Fund (Famig) and the Regional Metropolitan Commission for Human Mobility. "Regional Metropolitan" stands for the pastoral area of the archdiocese of Bogota together with the dioceses of Soacha, Engativá and Fontibón, with the support of religious communities. Participants at the Forum will include representatives from other regions and the principal goal is to put the experience of the Church in the field of migration into context, taking as a reference the Encyclical Caritas in Veritate.
The latest Report just issued by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees on the situation in the world at the end of 2009, speaks of some 43.3 million displaced persons in the world (see Fides 16/6/2010). The Report, Global Trends 2009, presents for the first time information regarding the situation in Colombia.
Chapter 7 of the Report deals with persons internally displaced in Colombia for a variety of reasons: armed conflict, violence, violation of human rights, etc. According to the Report at the end of 2009 some 15.6 million displaced persons benefited from UNHCR protection and assistance. This is the highest number ever recorded, 1.2 million higher than the previous year (14.4 million) and more than double the figure before starting activity with other agencies (6.6 million in 2005). Colombia, which began to register internally displaced persons in 1997, today has 3.3 registered internally displaced persons. These figures coincide with data produced by other bodies such as the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring (see Fides 19/05/2010). (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 18/06/2010)
