Bogotá, December 23 (RHC-Mercopress) -- Over the past weekend, 96 Colombians were deported from Venezuela and more deportations are expected. The office of the Colombian Ombudsman provided support to these people who were allegedly victims of abuse by the Venezuelan authorities. There have been four mass deportations in 2014 from Venezuela to Colombia.

According to the Colombian Foreign Ministry the alleged illegal immigrants were being deported because of their lack of proper documents. Colombian border authorities also expect some 28,000 of their nationals to travel through their borders in either direction every day this coming week in anticipation of the Christmas holidays.

The special arrangements being made also foresee a significant number of tourists of other nationalities to go through one of their 37 checkpoints nationwide. Tourism in Colombia has grown in 2014, with 200,000 more travelers registered than the year before.

The number of Colombian nationals in a precarious immigration situation in Venezuela is increasing rapidly. The Colombian Ombudsman has warned that 34 people (17 from San Antonio, Tachira and 17 others from Margarita Island) are in the process of being sent back to their country.