New immigration measures for entering Venezuelans to Colombia will negatively impact the economy on the border

The new requirements established by Migration Colombia for the entry of Venezuelans to the neighboring country could negatively influence the commercial dynamics that develops on the Colombian-Venezuelan border.

Banking and business

On February 12, Migration Colombia sent a statement to the General Manager of the International Association of Air Transport (IATA) in the country, Paula Bernal Sanint, requesting him to communicate to airlines the income requirements of Venezuelans.

These requirements include that Venezuelan passengers with routes to Bogotá are required to present the exit ticket when entering Colombiathat is, that Decree 1067 of May 26, 2015 of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is put into practice.

As a consequence, in Venezuela, travel and airline agencies They ask users to also buy the return ticket. This makes travelers leave Colombia by Cúcuta (northern Santander) or Riohacha (La Guajira), for not having direct flights to airports.

Likewise, air transport companies have distributed flyers with the following message: «We can no longer embark Venezuelan passengers to border cities, only to Caracas, as long as they meet the entered requirements to Venezuela.»

This measure would negatively affect the economic activities of the area, mainly trade and hotelsince it would reduce both the flow of passengers to the border area, and the arrival of passengers to the Camilo Daza airport, warns the president of the Tourism Chamber of Tourism, Gustavo Anzola.

“We ask the travel and airline agencies to allow Venezuelan and foreigners citizens to enter Colombia and demonstrate land via through the border crossings allow them to buy the ticket from that border city or, if you already have it only to exhibit it they leave them Get on the plane, ”said Anzola.

The Venezuelan union leader said that this measure has a “legal lagoon”, regardless of the airlines letting Bogotá arrive and going out by North of Santander to Táchira, because there are travelers who make life both in the border area and in the center and Venezuela .

Therefore, they raised the situation before the Colombian ambassador, Milton Rengifo Hernández, so that actions that do not affect the cross -border dynamics can be applied.

Towards the side of Colombia, Sergio Castillo, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Cúcuta, requested that the measure be reviewed since through the Tourism Cluster, the panorama is concerned.

“As a representative of the businessmen, I can say that EThis measure will negatively impact our business fabric, because in one way or another, we are a traffic destination and purchases For our Venezuelan brothers and for which we are working hard to make visible it tourist, ”he said

The union leader indicated that, together with allies of the sector they are designing actions that “with timely dialogue, this measure can be reviewed and, therefore, adjust it, in order that the normal development of our sector is not affected”, indicate a note of The opinion.