Colombia - IOM and USAID are supporting an innovative new reintegration scheme for Colombian ex-combatants called “Reintegration of Ex-Combatants in Controlled Environments.” The project aims to provide intensive agricultural training to ex-combatants to help them find jobs and sustainably reintegrate them back into society.

The model, which has already trained 120 former combatants, brings together demobilized people from different armed groups in the controlled environment of educational farms and retrains them as farmers. Graduates of the programme can then be certified as technicians in horticulture, fruit cultivation, rearing livestock, care of pigs, horses and other specializations.

Joshua Mittroti, the General Director of the Colombian Reintegration Agency (ACR), said that the idea of re-training demobilized people to work in agriculture came from the ongoing peace talks in Havana. He hopes that it be a feature of future demobilizations, as many of the ex-combatants come from peasant families and want to return to the land.

“In Colombia, we have a reintegration route that takes between six and ten years. This new model gives the ex-combatants theoretical and practical training that allows them to obtain work as soon as they disarm, which makes them less likely to reoffend. It shortens the process by about three years,” he notes.

“We are convinced that it is possible to strengthen the peace-building capacity of the Colombian government through the efficient reintegration of ex-combatants. This model provides the country with innovative tools to cope with future demobilizations of guerrilla groups – tools that complete the process in less time,” said IOM Colombia Chief of Mission Alejandro Guidi.

The project is supported by USAID and IOM.  IOM analysed the current Colombian reintegration process and used the results to design a pilot project. ACR is in charge of the selection and reintegration of the ex-combatants. The educational farms are in charge of the training and helping to find jobs for those who successfully complete the programme.

Colombia’s 50-year armed conflict has claimed some 200,000 victims, most of them civilians. In 2003, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) – the main paramilitary group – negotiated their collective demobilization under Law 975 or the Justice and Peace Law.

This resulted in over 35,000 ex-combatants entering the government reintegration programme, which requires them to do community service. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian government have been negotiating a peace treaty in Havana, Cuba for over two years.

For further information, please contact Jorge Gallo at IOM Colombia, Tel. +57 1 6397777, Ext. 1715 - Email: jgallo@iom.int