Colombia on Wednesday evicted over 200 homeless Venezuelans who had been sleeping in a sports field in its border town of Cucuta, highlighting growing unease over an influx of migrants from the crisis-hit neighboring country.

The Venezuelans were removed at the crack of dawn from the field in a middle-class neighborhood, where they had been sleeping in makeshift tents or on cardboard boxes. A few insulted Venezuela's leftist President Nicolas Maduro as they boarded Colombian migration agency trucks, a Reuters reporter witnessed.

Most were deported to Venezuela because they did not have valid passports, although some vowed to cross back over when they got the chance.