Members of the Yukpa group have crossed the border to escape the crisis at home, but unlike other migrants they have been deported twice and have repeatedly clashed with border officials

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Late last year, 12-year-old Betania heard talk among her neighbors that there was a city not far away where they could find food.



“My mother said: ‘Betania, go away from here, because we are suffering hunger. Look how your siblings are; they don’t have anything in their bellies,’” she recalled.

So Betania bid farewell to her family, left their remote village in the mountains of western Venezuela and walked 300km (186 miles) to the Colombian border city of Cúcuta.

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Camped on the far bank of the Táchira river, she found hundreds of fellow members of the Yukpa indigenous community who had also fled starvation and sickness in Venezuela, where scarcity caused by a spiraling economic collapse has penetrated even rural indigenous communities.



The Yukpa are a tiny handful compared to the hundreds of thousands Venezuelans who have crossed the border in recent years to escape hyperinflation, spiraling crime and a seemingly endless political crisis at home. But unlike the other migrants, this indigenous group has been deported twice.

Both times, they walked back to Colombia, where they set up camp again on the riverbank. Now, they are stuck: unwilling to go back to Venezuela, unwelcome to move forward in Colombia.



“You know why I came here? Because I can’t stay back there without food, without money, without clothes, without anything,” said Anteli Romero, 28, a Yukpa artesan from the mountains outside the city of Machiques. “Now they’re saying that they don’t want the Yukpa here – they’re saying we came here for nothing.”

Around 500 members of the group are camped out by the river, including several dozen pregnant women. Members of the group sleep in the open or in shelters assembled from recycled material. In the evening, a dozen small fires flicker in the woods as those with food cook white rice or corn cakes.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Venezuelans cross the border into Cúcuta, Colombia. The masses of Venezuelan migrants disperse into cities across Colombia, but the Yukpa’s presence on the border has irritated local authorities. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

While the masses of other Venezuelan migrants have dispersed into cities across Colombia, the Yukpa’s concentrated presence on the border has irritated local authorities.

Members of the group have repeatedly clashed with Colombian border officials, and even threatened them with bows and arrows.

Relations between Colombia and Venezuela have been tetchy for several years, but in January, authorities on the two countries cooperated to clear the riverbank encampment and return about 500 Yukpa to their lands outside the city of Machiques.

The Yukpa said they was still no food or medicine there, so they walked back.

In March, authorities in Cúcuta deported the Yukpa again. But many returned, and more keep arriving.



“Back in Venezuela, we sometimes go the entire day without food. That’s why everyone is coming here,” said Arbelei Landino, another Yukpa migrant.

When the current migration crisis erupted two years ago, Colombia initially responded by granting legal residence for working Venezuelans. In February it withdrew those privileges and deployed 3,000 troops to the border.



But the tide of migrants over the open border has proven impossible to stop. Activists say the government must invest in a proper response before the situation becomes unmanageable.



“The government has no idea how to handle this situation,” said Father Francesko Bortignon, who runs a migrant safe house in Cúcuta.



The Yukpa, whose ancestral territories straddle the border and predate both Colombia and Venezuela, have tried to invoke their rights as a bi-national tribe.

In theory, Colombia’s constitution recognizes the right to citizenship to members of such groups and extends special protections to preserve indigenous communities, but Yukpa leaders say the 15,000-member tribe have not received any of those protections.

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Colombia’s interior ministry has said it must take a census of the Yukpa to certify their indigenous identity. Until then, they’ll be regarded as Venezuelans living illegally in Cúcuta.

“The attitude of the government is: ‘Hide the poor, they look ugly,’” said Andres Berona, legal adviser for the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC). “These actions are motivated by racism against the indigenous people.”

Facing a complicated humanitarian and diplomatic crisis, Colombia authorities – local and national – simply took the easiest option, he said.

The Cúcuta mayor’s office did not respond to requests, but previously told local media that the Yukpa were becoming involved in the smuggling across the border.

Barona with ONIC said the government should give the Yukpa space to live and guarantee them access to food, clean water and latrines while it figures out a plan.



Amid a humanitarian crisis which has already overwhelmed government and international aid, indigenous groups have often been neglected said Deborah Hines, Colombia director of the World Food Program.



“We focus on indigenous communities because they tend to be the most vulnerable people,” she said.



But many in the Yukpa camp said that life by the river was better than back home. At least here, a few coins can buy a bag of rice. In Venezuela, there is no rice to be found.



“We got tired of suffering so much hunger. So we came here,” said Angel Romero, 32. “We hope they will help us.”

