(Image: MIgracion Colombia)
Colombia’s migration authority and the army’s anti-kidnapping unit said they rescued 17 children of a Jewish sect that had settled in a small-town hotel in the north of the country.
Among the children were five US citizens whose disappearance had been reported to Interpol, Migracion Colombia said on social media platform Twitter.
Medellin newspaper El Colombiano reported that the group allegedly belonging to the Lev Tahor sect traveled from New York to Colombia around November 22 or 23 and settled in the Yarumal hotel.
The group, which has been in trouble with the authorities in the United States and Guatemala, reportedly came to Yarumal to prepare the creation of a colony in the mountainous region.
While verifying the identities of the group’s members, authorities found that the five of the children had been reported as missing in the their native country after which family welfare agency ICBF was called in.
The absolute priority is to ensure the protection of the minors. That is why we take a preventive approach, working in coordination with the ICBF, the Judicial Police, the Gaula Militar, and the Attorney General’s Office, ensuring comprehensive support that safeguards their rights and well-being.
Migration Colombia director Gloria Esperanza Arriero
Lev Tahor, a sect with approximately 200 or 300 members, made headlines in December last year when authorities in Guatemala said they rescued 160 children from the group, which was accused of human trafficking and child sexual abuse.
The group was founded in Israel in 1988 and has been moving between western Asia and the Americas since 1990.
Lev Tahor’s founder, Chlomo Erez Helfrans, spent two years in a US prison for kidnapping in the 1990’s and died while performing a religious ritual in the south of Mexico in 2017.
