COLOMBIA / URBAN DISPLACEMENT

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15 July 2016

The community known as Altos de la Florida formed with the arrival of families displaced by decades of violence and acute poverty in Colombia. It is now home to over 700 households who live with intermittent electricity and no running water. One of the biggest challenges facing local residents is their struggle to obtain legal title to the land on which their homes are built. UNHCR

Description

STORY: COLOMBIA / URBAN DISPLACEMENT
TRT: 02:25
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICITONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR
LANGUAGE: SPANISH / NATS

DATELINE: 30 JUNE 2016, ALTOS DE LA FLORIDA, SOACHA (OUTSKIRTS OF BOGOTA), COLOMBIA

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Shotlist

1. Close up, water poured in a tank
2. Med shot, people pouring the water
3. Various shots, woman carrying a bucket
4. Close up, Yomaira Socarra
5. Pan left, Yomaira in her room with her kids
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Yomaira, Displaced Colombian:
“I fled and was displaced because of FARC. They displaced us because my husband was a professional soldier in 2008.”
7. Wide shot, Yomaira going upstairs
8. Close up, Yomaira sweeping
9. Wide shot, Yomaira sweeping
10. Close up, Yomaira
11. UPSOUND (Spanish) Yomaira, Displaced Colombian:
“Purchase-sale contract between Yomaira Socarra and the seller Jorge Lozano.”
12. Close up, Yomaira reading
13. Close up, purchase-sale papers
14. Wide shot, Yomaira with UNHCR team
15. Med shot, Nieves and Yomaira
16. Med shot, Yomaira and Gema UNHCR
17. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Nieves Batres, UNHCR Field Officer:
“We are speaking with the municipality about the legalization of the land. And they say that it is very difficult.”
18. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Yomaira, Displaced Colombian:
“I feel I am the owner of this land. In Altos de la Florida, no one has legally registry of the land. Everyone has a possession letter like me.”
19. Wide shot, Altos de la Florida
20. Close up, electrician
21. Wide shot, street
22. Med shot, man working outside his house
23. Wide shot, man working outside his house
24. Various shots, street scenes
25. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Yomaira, Displaced Colombian:
“I feel really good in Altos de la Florida. We have needs, that’s true, but I love this land, no matter what we had lived here.”
26. Wide shot, Yomaira entering her house
27. Close up, family looking through the window

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Storyline

The community known as Altos de la Florida – on the edge of Soacha, near Bogotá – formed with the arrival of families displaced by decades of violence and acute poverty in Colombia. It is now home to over 700 households who live with intermittent electricity and no running water. One of the biggest challenges facing local residents is their struggle to obtain legal title to the land on which their homes are built.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has supported negotiations aimed at developing a pathway for them to secure legal ownership of the land.

Almost all of the 3,000 residents living on this hilltop settlement were displaced by armed groups, gang violence, or poverty.

Yomaira Socarra came with her four children.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Yomaira, Displaced Colombian:
“I fled and was displaced because of FARC. They displaced us because my husband was a professional soldier in 2008.”

There are nearly 7 million displaced people in Colombia, the highest number in the world.

Yomaira settled in the outskirts of Bogota.

She met a man who said he would sell her some land, the land her house is on.

UPSOUND (Spanish) Yomaira, Displaced Colombian:
“Purchase-sale contract between Yomaira Socarra and the seller Jorge Lozano.”

But the sale was never recorded at the land registry office. None of the sales here were.

UNHCR has been working with the displaced residents and the government to change that.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Nieves Batres, UNHCR Field Officer:
“We are speaking with the municipality about the legalization of the land. And they say that it is very difficult.”

SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Yomaira, Displaced Colombian:
“I feel I am the owner of this land. In Altos de la Florida, no one has legally registry of the land. Everyone has a possession letter like me.”

Some things have improved for the residents of Florida. More electrical lines are being installed, and now there’s even a bus service.

Home improvements are ongoing and new housing is being built.

Everyone here lives in hope that the land issue will be resolved.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Yomaira, Displaced Colombian:
“I feel really good in Altos de la Florida. We have needs, that’s true, but I love this land, no matter what we’ve been through.”

Even without land titles, the displaced of Florida want to stay.

Here they have found some sense of security and something denied to them for years: a place to call home.

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