Colombia denies UN unidentified bodies claim

The United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances reported on Thursday that about 20,000 unidentified bodies are currently stored at a hangar at Bogota Airport. The claim was subsequently denied by the Colombian government.

A delegation set up by the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances, or CED, visited Colombia from Nov 21 to Thursday. Upon concluding its visit, the CED released a report stating that enforced disappearances remain a reality across Colombia.

According to the report, thousands of unidentified bodies are located in poorly managed cemeteries or storage facilities, including a hangar at Bogota Airport, where about 20,000 unidentified bodies are allegedly stored.

"Although enforced disappearances started in Colombia around the 1940s, they are not just a crime of the past. They continue to occur daily across the country in diverse circumstances," the CED delegation said on the UN's official website.

In response, the Colombian government conducted an inspection of 27 hangars at Bogota's El Dorado International Airport on Thursday evening and found no evidence of bodies, ColombiaOne.com reported.

The Institute of Forensic Medicine of Colombia also stated that there is no evidence to support the statements of the CED and clarified that "it has not received requests from any authority for the study and analysis of such cases", as local media reported.

Opain, the private company that manages the airport, asserted that it has no knowledge of the existence of unidentified bodies at the airport's hangar.

The CED said the number of disappearances in Colombia ranges from 98,000 to 200,000, with discrepancies in institutional records making it difficult to determine the exact number.

The CED announced that it has shared its preliminary findings with the Colombian government and plans to publish a full public report in April 2025."Families of the disappeared deserve clarity, justice, and accountability," the CED delegation said.