Colombia's President Gustavo Petro said Tuesday that his country will impose visa requirements on British citizens, in retaliation for a decision made by the United Kingdom to remove Colombia from a list of countries whose nationals can visit Britain without a tourist visa.
In a message published on X, Petro said that due to “the principle of reciprocity” Colombia’s government will begin asking citizens of the UK for visas. He provided no more details on when the visa restrictions will come into effect.
Earlier on Tuesday, the United Kingdom announced that Colombian citizens will no longer be able to travel to that country without a visa. In a statement published on its social media platforms, the British embassy in Colombia said that over the past two years, there has been a “significant” increase in the number of Colombians who arrive at UK airports and make “unjustified” asylum claims.
The United Kingdom had lifted visa restrictions on Colombians in 2022. But its embassy in Bogota said that the recent rise in asylum claims from Colombians had forced the British government to reimpose visa requirements.
“Sadly, the abuses undertaken by a minority of Colombians who have traveled to the United Kingdom, have led our ministers to take this decision,” the statement reads.
In a radio interview on Tuesday, Roy Barreras, Colombia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom said that more than 940 Colombians have made asylum claims in the United Kingdom this year, with some resorting to travel agencies that allegedly teach them how to cheat in their asylum applications. In 2021, only six Colombians made asylum claims in the UK, the ambassador said.
Over the past three years, hundreds of thousands of Colombians have fled to Europe and the United States. Economic stagnation and rising violence in some parts of the country, particularly from rebel groups and drug traffickers, have forced many to seek safety and opportunity abroad.
In 2022, U.S. border patrol agents conducted more than 165,000 arrests of Colombians at the Mexican border. This number decreased slightly to 155,000 in the following year.
____
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
