Bogotá (AFP) – Colombian authorities said Saturday that Ecuador had deported about 600 Colombian prisoners via a land border crossing, after Bogota protested the action came without prior agreement.

In 2024, Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa announced his intention to deport Colombian inmates to ease overcrowding in the country's prisons. Small groups were transferred starting in April.

But Colombian President Gustavo Petro opposed the move, saying that a joint plan was needed to safeguard the prisoners' rights.

"In the morning, 603 people arrived, 60 women and 543 men, and we completed the reception of them" at the Rumichaca border crossing in Carchi province, Colombia's acting foreign minister Rosa Villavicencio said.

Authorities on both sides of the border had previously reported conflicting figures for the number of prisoners deported.

The inmates, wearing orange uniforms, waited in line to reenter their home country under the watchful eye of Ecuadoran police and military personnel.

Early in the day, some in shorts and t-shirts did exercises while waiting for their turn to cross the border in the chilly Andean air, saying "We want to cross, we want to cross."

On Friday, the government in Bogota lodged a formal complaint with Quito, saying such a move without prior agreement was a violation of international law and an "unfriendly gesture."

A source in the Carchi governor's office who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity said the mass deportation began on Friday, and the 870 inmates slated at the time for expulsion represented about 60 percent of all Colombians in Ecuador's prisons.

Juan Morales, an official in the Colombian town of Ipiales, said that authorities had to scramble to handle the influx of people, because Ecuador had not informed them of the deportations.

Ecuador's foreign ministry said Saturday that Bogota was told about the plan on July 8.

The mayor of the border town of Ipiales, Amilcar Pantoja, told the media on Friday that prisoners without pending legal cases in Colombia would be released.

Drug trafficking gangs operating in Ecuador -- some involving Colombian criminals -- have turned the country into one of the most violent in Latin America.

The homicide rate has jumped from six per 100,000 people in 2018 to 38 in 2024, among the highest in the region.