FILE PHOTO: Haitian migrants stand while seeking to resolve their legal situation to avoid deportation from Colombia and continue their way to Panama and the United States, in Cali, Colombia, August 10, 2016. REUTERS/Jaime Saldarriaga/File Photo
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Three offices meant to attend Haitian, Cuban and Venezuelan migrants hoping to reach the United States will open in Colombia, the Andean country's foreign ministry said on Thursday, the initial phase of a plan to reduce migrant flows through the dangerous Darien Gap.
The Safe Mobility scheme was agreed between Colombia, Panama and the United States in April in a bid to address humanitarian issues in the Darien, where migrants often suffer death, injury and crime.
Colombian towns on the way to the Darien are regularly hugely overcrowded with migrants attempting to move along the irregular route.
More than 250,000 people crossed the treacherous Darien Gap during the first seven months of 2023, the United Nations Refugee Agency said in a statement on Wednesday, citing Panamanian government figures.
That number is equal to the total figure of crossers in all of 2022, it added.
Haitian, Cuban and Venezuelan migrants who entered Colombia legally through June 11 this year can apply online for potential spots to enter the United State, the Colombia foreign ministry statement said.
"For this exploratory phase, in consultation with local authorities, Colombia has authorized the creation of three points for Safe Mobility in the cities of Soacha, Medellin and Cali," the statement added.
The Medellin office opened this week, it added, and the points will operate at locations shared with UN agencies.
Colombia will not intercede in any migration decisions, it said.
(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
