"The only guarantee for our lives is to leave Colombia," says Craxito, an activist. The announcement that her country would enter a list of safe countries with no option for asylum exacerbates fears.
Politics Colombia
Asylum for Colombians: "the only guarantee is to leave the country"
Mirra Banchón
22 hours ago
"The only guarantee for our lives is to leave Colombia," says an activist to DW. The announcement that her country would enter a list of safe countries with no option for asylum exacerbates fears.
Displaced people from the Catatumbo region during the last major crisis in January 2025. Image: Fernando Vergara/AP/picture alliance
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"I have been waiting thirty months for a response that, according to the regulations, should be given to me between six and twelve months," says Claudia Álvarez, an activist from Colombia, awaiting asylum in Spain and, by extension, in the European Union. "This, after a period of five years in Chile, is my second exile," continues Claudia Álvarez, who was the president of Colombian refugees in the southern country.
Her story dates back to Operation Orion, when in 2002 military forces stormed Comuna 13 in Medellín. After reporting being a victim of kidnapping and sexual violence, she became a leader of victim groups. From there, she became an exile, first in Chile. She returned to her country. She went back to activism. She was displaced. She returned to exile. "I cannot go back to Colombia; it is not a safe country," she emphasizes.
Claudia Álvarez's story joins those of thousands and thousands of Colombians who have sought asylum to save their lives. And it's not just the recent case of Catatumbo (January 2025), which resulted in 56,000 displaced people, 27,000 confined, and 56 dead.
Authorized voices evaluate
"Colombia remains an extremely dangerous and unsafe country for those defending rights, territory, and the environment," says the representative in Europe of Peace Brigades International (PBI) in Colombia to DW. In 2025, by mid-March, 38 human rights defenders have been killed (data from Indepaz). In 2024, the Somos Defensores Program recorded 157 murders. According to Global Witness, in its September 2024 report, Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world for social leaders.
"These victimizing events are compounded by serious humanitarian crises in several regions of the country, where legal and illegal armed actors vie for territorial control, causing massacres," states the PBI representative, an organization that has been present in Colombia since 1994.
These figures align with the data from the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA). Among the five countries with the highest number of asylum applications in EU territory, Venezuela is followed by Colombia. In 2024, of the 51,529 asylum requests from Colombians in EU territory, 74% were submitted in Spain, 12% in Germany, 7% in Italy, 3% in France, and 2% in Belgium.
Need for asylum, denial of asylum
It is noteworthy that, although none of those countries still considers Colombia a "safe country," only less than five percent of asylum applications have been accepted. Most of them (20 percent) in Spain; none in Germany. According to official information, there are European countries that have special reception programs for nationals of Venezuela, Colombia, and Peru; however, their application for international protection counts as denied.
