News Archive

Colombia’s approach to the Venezuelan migrant crisis: 
a regularisation scheme for pragmatic, humanitarian, and human rights considerations   

Welcoming Remarks 
Dr Stefano Angeleri, Irish Centre for Human Rights
H.E. Ms Adriana Mejía Hernández, Vice Minister for Multilateral Affairs of Colombia  

 Key Note Presentations  

Mr Juan Francisco Espinosa 
Director of Migración Colombia (Migratory Authority of Colombia) 
‘Colombia’s experience and policy approach to managing Venezuelan migration and the implementation of the TPSV’  

Dr María Teresa Palacios Sanabria 
Director of the Human Rights Centre at Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá
‘A human rights review of the Colombian policy for Venezuelan migrants’  

Mr Bernard McCaul 
GOAL’s Deputy Director for Programme Design and Innovation and 
Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean 
‘The role of NGOs in responding to a migration crisis: lessons learnt from the field’.   

Closing remarks 
H.E. Ms Patricia Cortés, Ambassador of Colombia to Ireland   

Time: 2 Pm (Dublin) 8 am (Bogotá) 
Date: Wednesday, 26^th May 2021  
Join Zoom Meeting 

 Speakers Bios:   

Juan Francisco Espinosa Palacios is the General Director of Migración Colombia since January 2020. This unit is the migration and border control agency of Colombia. He has a law degree from Universidad del Rosario, a postgraduate diploma in Contract Law from the same university and studies in Finance at Universidad de los Andes.  He has served as Vice Minister of Criminal Policy and Restorative Justice; General Director of the Financial Information and Analysis Unit (UIAF); National Coordinator of the Working Group against Terrorism Financing at the Financial Action Task Force of Latin America (GAFILAT); Head of the Legal Office of the Ministry of Finance; and member of the board of different agencies such as Findeter, Fiduprevisora and Fonade.   

Dr María Teresa Palacios Sanabria (PhD Seville University) is associate professor at Universidad del Rosario (Bogota) where she directs its human rights research group. Dr Palacios has 18 years of experience in constitutional and international law, human rights, gender and migration, asylum and displacement. She has participated in many national and international projects funded by prestigious bodies (e.g., the EU, UN Entity for Gender Equality & Empowerment of Women, Organization of American States, Ibero-American Organization of Social Security & the Colombian Government) and has widely researched and published on the rights of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia (e.g.  Migración y Derechos Humanos: El caso colombiano 2014–2018 [Migration and Human Rights: The Colombian case] Eds with Dr Londoño Toro, Universidad del Rosario Publishing.  

Bernard McCaul is GOAL’s Deputy Director for Programme Design and Innovation and Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. Mr McCaul has an Honours degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering (1993), a Master degree in Engineering Science (1995 – Use of Advanced Technology in Engineering), a Diploma in Project Management from the Institute of Engineers of Ireland (IEI, 2005), is a Chartered Member of the IEI (2008) and has a Diploma in Markets for the Poor from Springhouse for Business in Development (2016). He has 12 years post graduate experience in engineering consultancy and has managed over 30 commercial/industrial, water services and environmental engineering projects in Ireland, UK, Poland and Central America including as Design Manager for a €70M Public Private Partnership project in South Dublin. In addition, Mr McCaul has 14 years’ experience in international Aid and Development with International NGO GOAL. He was a member of GOAL’s disaster response team for Hurricane Mitch in Central America in 1998, El Salvador Earthquake (2001), Asian Tsunami (2004), Haiti Earthquake (2010) and a number of other emergencies in the LAC region between 2001 and 2021.  He is currently overseeing GOAL’s response the Venezuela Migrant Crisis.