2023-11-21 03:38:32
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Álvaro Leyva Durán, and the Foreign Minister of Venezuela, Yvan Gil, signed an agreement to protect children and adolescents neglected by their parents, as reported on Monday by the Colombian Foreign Ministry in a statement.
The so-called Memorandum of Understanding on the Protection and Safe Return of Girls, Boys and Adolescents without Parental Care, signed within the framework of the visit of the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, to Venezuela, says that it protects “the best interest” of minors, by “enabling a direct channel between both States.”
In addition, the procedure seeks to “manage and obtain identity documents and confirm the nationality of minors, preventing the risk of statelessness”, and, in this way, achieve “a safe return for family reunification purposes” of children abandoned in Colombia.
The Foreign Ministry explained that the procedure will apply to children and adolescents who are under the protection system in either of the two countries, without parental care or family references.
The agreement, the text adds, allows “moving forward with 647 prioritized cases of Venezuelan children and adolescents for the search for family for the purposes of family reunification.”
According to the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare, until September 2023, there are 3,211 Venezuelan migrant children and adolescents in its protection system.
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