MinSalud led a meeting to analyze the situation of migrants in Colombia

In order to review and ensure that migrants living in the country have access to health services, the national Government led a health cluster focused on this population. On March 31, representatives of the Ministry of Health (MinSalud) spoke with international cooperation partners to enhance the results of the actions being carried out and that can be implemented with their support.

For the Government, this is an essential point because only the migrant population from Venezuela in the country amounts to approximately 2,029,758 people, according to data from the Single Register of Venezuelan Migrants (RUMV). It should be noted that in the last five years the migrant population in Colombia has added more than 14 million attentions to more than 1.5 million people.

To date, 487,000 migrants are active members of the Social Security System and the goal of closing the government is 747,000 members, or 64 per cent. Of the participants, 48 per cent are in the contributory scheme and 52 per cent are in the subsidized scheme.

According to MinSalud, these figures allow us to visualize the scale of the challenges facing the health sector. The aid workers mentioned the need to work in an articulated manner to advance the evolution of insurance towards effective access to health care and its outcomes, in areas of high rural areas.

It was indicated that another cluster meeting would be held to follow up and present the joint work strategy of the aid workers and the health sector in the care of migrants in an irregular situation.

It should be remembered that, on March 25, the Colombian authorities had handed over 700,000 cards with the Temporary Protection Status for Venezuelans, a measure aimed at regularizing migrants. This allows this population to access rights such as education, work and, of course, health.

“The Colombian Protection Statute is a benchmark that they are looking at because today the reality of migration forces all nations of the world to receive migrants,” said Vice President and Foreign Minister Marta Lucía Ramírez.

The Temporary Protection Statute card, which began to be issued on October 13, will make it easier for Venezuelans to access employment contracts, health entities or banking services.

The previous system, called Special Permit to Permit (PEP), was a physical document that many banks and companies did not accept because of its ease of forgery.

The statute is open to all Venezuelan migrants who have entered the country before January 2021 and seeks to “discourage irregularity” and that benefit can also be accessed by those who enter the country in the first two years of the rule's validity on a regular basis, that is, with a stamp in their passport.

“What Colombia has done in the area of migration, many countries have recently asked us to share with them the experience of how the statute was designed (...) Today the issue of migration is going to become one of the most important issues in the whole world,” said Ramírez.

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