Land restitution in Colombia: why so few applications?

The Victims and Land Restitution Law (Law 1448 of 2011[1]) offers Colombia’s displaced population a new route for reclaiming their land. It has received praise and criticism in almost equal measure, but there is one overarching concern: the low number of applicants. In 2012 Colombia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development estimated that 360,000 cases of either land abandonment or land usurpation would be considered for restitution under the new Law.[2] But more than half way through the process (the Law expires in 2021), the number of land claimants is less than a third of what was projected in 2012: as of August 2017, the Land Restitution Unit had received 106,833 applications. It seems that the majority of people who may be eligible for restitution have not even applied. Why?