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Colombia

Property restitution in sight but integration still distant

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Threats, assassinations, massacres, forced recruitment, and forced disappearances perpetrated by numerous illegal armed groups, and armed confrontations between these groups and government forces, continue to force Colombians to flee their homes, mostly from rural areas.

A reliable national NGO has reported that 280,000 people were newly displaced in 2010, adding to previous displacement to create a total number of 5.2 million internally displaced people (IDPs). The government, however, registered only 109,000 people as IDPs during the year. The total, cumulative figure also varies significantly, as the government had registered a total of 3.6 million IDPs by December 2010. In the first quarter of 2011, the government has registered 16,000 IDPs, which would signal a decline of displacement in 2011. As before, the problem of under-registration in the government registry remains significant.