A binational monitoring mission, conducted by both countries’ Ombudsmen’s Offices along the Ipiales-Tulcan corridor, with emphasis on the Rumichaca border crossing, and supported by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, described the situation.

The report stated that the issues are not only persisting but worsening, and risks include extortion, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, physical and sexual violence, labor exploitation, and recruitment and use by armed actors, alongside barriers to accessing healthcare, education, housing, humanitarian aid, migration status regularization, and protection mechanisms.

The analysis concluded that the scourges cannot be addressed through a migration control or security perspective.

The document emphasized, “The findings show that we are facing a situation requiring comprehensive responses from the States, involving effective institutional presence, binational coordination, and a human rights approach that protects both border communities and people on the move.”

The Ombudsmen’s Offices of Colombia and Ecuador deemed it necessary to strengthen a coordinated, multidimensional, binational state response that combines security actions with social, humanitarian, and development policies.

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