UN-backed project registers over half a million vulnerable Colombians

Over half a million Colombians in some of the nation’s remotest conflict zones have been able to obtain identification papers over the past five years thanks to mobile registration units supported by the United Nations refugee agency.

Seven mobile National Registry Office units, assisted by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), have distributed over 700,000 birth certificates, identity cards and passports to vulnerable Colombian populations since 2004 over the South American country’s toughest terrain.

“Our presence provides a symbol of international neutrality which helps State organisms to reach all citizens, including those who live in the most fought-over areas,” said UNHCR representative in Colombia Jean-Noel Wetterwald.

Equipped with computers, fingerprint materials, cameras and a satellite antenna to connect with the national database in Bogotá, the mobile registration units reach out to displaced people and those at risk of displacement, as well as indigenous communities.

The project is part of a large-scale national effort to guarantee the constitutional right of each citizen to a legal identity, which brings with it legal rights and access to basic services, and can be a question of life or death in conflict areas, according to UNHCR.

There are roughly 3 million people registered as internally displaced in Colombia, with an average of 300,000 new cases registered in each of the past two years, according to UNHCR. The agency has a dozen offices in the country and works closely with the uprooted, supporting Government efforts to protect and assist them, as well as find long-term solutions.