More than 10% of Colombians are displaced: court .

[Judi Lynn]

More than 10% of Colombians are displaced: court .
Thursday, 02 September 2010 16:20
Adriaan Alsema

More than 10% of Colombia's population is displaced, Constitutional Court magistrate Luis Ernesto Vargas said Thursday.

The court official blames the massive displacement on the country's armed conflict, but also on mega projects that are executed without consulting the local population, leaving them without access to their land.

The displacement hits the indigenous and afrocolombian peoples hardest, said Vargas. 16.6% of Colombia's displaced is afrocolombian and 6.5% is indigenous. Under influence of this high displacement rate, the life expectancy of an indigenous in Colombia is 30 years lower than the national average while 78% of afrocolombians and 69% of indigenous suffer a food deficit, he added.

According to the magistrate, the government does not have effective policies to combat displacement and improve living conditions of those displaced to undo a ruling of the court in 2004 that condemned the government's policy on displaced as unconstitutional.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/11652-more-than-10-of-colombians-is-displaced-court.html