4- Acciones constitucionales: defensa de las personas migrantes - derecho a la salud (Hugo Quintero)

Título original: "Acciones constitucionales para la defensa de las personas migrantes en el contexto del derecho a la salud".
Esta ponencia fue presentada por Hugo Quintero (Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia) el 15 de enero de 2021 durante la 1ª sesión dedicada a la "Protección internacional en tiempos de pandemia" de la VII Conferencia Latinoamericana sobre los refugiados, organizada por el Comité Helsinki Húngaro, con el apoyo del ACNUR, como parte de la Iniciativa RELATE (Refugee Law Teaching Support).
English summary:
As of 2020, there are more than 700.000 Venezuelan nationals that are residing irregularly, and 900.000 in a regular situation in Colombia. The borders with Venezuela are still closed, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Once in Colombia, migrants face various difficulties, those who reside irregularly struggle for resources. In this context, international protection is a tool to guarantee migrants’ access to basic services, allowing them to access education, the labor market and the national health care system (especially in emergency situations). The government has enforced complementary protection measures in order to provide such services to the migrant population, the so-called, special residence permit (for which migrants needed to register voluntarily), which have been particularly useful at the borders, as they guarantee the individual’s right to access the health care system. While there is hope for the future, the government did face difficulties during the registration campaigns for the special permits, as the migrant population feared deportation (only 30-40% of the total population registered voluntarily), as a result of not having enough information about the procedure.