Close sites icon close
Search form

Search for the country site.

Country profile

Country website

2009 Dialogue: Related Themes

2009 Dialogue: Related Themes

This web page has been divided thematically to enable participants to understand and navigate through the complex topic of challenges to people of concern in cities and urban settings. Under each heading, you will find links to relevant articles, evaluations and tools:

Colombia: Life in the Barrios

12 May 2006

After more than forty years of internal armed conflict, Colombia has one of the largest populations of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world. Well over two million people have been forced to flee their homes; many of them have left remote rural areas to take refuge in the relative safety of the cities.

Displaced families often end up living in slum areas on the outskirts of the big cities, where they lack even the most basic services. Just outside Bogota, tens of thousands of displaced people live in the shantytowns of Altos de Cazuca and Altos de Florida, with little access to health, education or decent housing. Security is a problem too, with irregular armed groups and gangs controlling the shantytowns, often targeting young people.

UNHCR is working with the authorities in ten locations across Colombia to ensure that the rights of internally displaced people are fully respected &; including the rights to basic services, health and education, as well as security.

Persons of Concern in Urban Areas in the News

2009 Dialogue: Literature Review

A review of available literature on persons of concern in urban settings.

Mexico. Central American Refugees Jose Ismael and Leonel Antonio Diaz sell flowers in the streets of Tapachula, Mexico.

More than half the refugees UNHCR serves now live in urban areas