Spotlight on Issues

Spotlight on Ecuador

May 18, 2008

Ecuador struggles to provide safe haven and services for a largely neglected and invisible Colombian refugee population

Ecuador is home to the largest refugee population in Latin America, composed overwhelmingly of Colombian refugees who have fled the 40-year-long civil conflict at home to seek safety and security in the neighboring country. About 17,000 have been granted legal status in Ecuador today. A full 99% of these registered refugees are Colombian nationals who have fled persecution on the part of Colombian paramilitaries, guerillas, and Colombian government forces. At least 200,000 more unregistered Colombian refugees live in irregular status within Ecuador in need of protection and legal recognition. These “invisible” refugees often fear that the registration process will make them vulnerable to retribution by Colombian armed groups, who frequently cross Ecuador’s porous border. The unregistered refugees may also lack understanding of the framework of legal rights guaranteed to them as refugees fleeing persecution under the Geneva Convention of 1951 and the Ecuadorian Constitution.

Ecuador’s refugee protection system is considered one of the more progressive in Latin America. Certainly the country should be congratulated for keeping its borders relatively open to Colombians fleeing persecution, despite the economic, political and social impact on the relatively poor country. The number of refugee applicants who are granted recognition in Ecuador hovers around 40% of all cases seeking asylum, meaning that the majority of the cases are rejected or “left pending.” The country is also currently struggling under a 25,000 case backlog for refugee applicants. There is no social safety net for refugees, and there is little interest in government sponsorship of programs to feed and house refugees while they await decisions in the refugee determination process. Ecuadorian society feels fatigued by the large refugee flow from its neighbor, and politicians and media often complain of the lack of international funding and burden-sharing in support of Ecuador’s efforts to comply with the Refugee Convention.

In 2006 President Rafael Correa reaffirmed his country’s commitment to upholding the Convention and welcoming Colombians fleeing the protracted conflict. In spite of this apparent political support for the spirit of the Refugee Convention, Ecuador has significant problems carrying-out key obligations to refugees under international law. The lack of legal recognition for the majority of the Colombian refugee population in Ecuador makes them vulnerable to a host of evils including trafficking, sexual exploitation of women and children, harassment, detention and deportation by authorities. Xenophobia in the interior region of Ecuador is intense, and often prevents refugees from finding gainful employment or partaking in guaranteed services such as education for their minor children. Security concerns also loom large for the refugee population, as evidenced by repeated victimization of refugees by Colombian armed groups who pursue their Colombian “targets” in Ecuador. The presence of the Colombian armed groups in Ecuador is due in large part to their trafficking operations in drugs, arms and people in the border region, but the pursuit of “military targets” over the border by the paramilitaries and guerillas is legendary in the border provinces. The security problems are most acute along the border, where refugees live in remote communities, far from state protection. These security gaps leave both the local and Colombian population shaken, and leads to the misapprehension among the local population that the Colombian refugees are to blame for increased insecurity in their communities. UNHCR has only one fully functioning office in a border province, which is currently manned by too few staff members. UNHCR just opened an office in another northern border province, Esmeraldas, but further growth is needed to fully address the protection needs of this population.

JRS-Ecuador advocates for UNHCR and other international humanitarian groups to launch a program of protection through presence concentrated first along Ecuador’s border, with further growth of offices in the country’s interior. This is an essential step, and an alternative to militarization of the border, which would lead to decreased opportunity for Colombians to escape persecution by entering Ecuador. A protection through presence program will mean that refugees may be greeted by international humanitarian workers as they enter the country, who can apprise refugees immediately of their rights upon entering the country, and protect them from exploitation, register them as refugee applicants, and help them to integrate into their new communities. This plan will require increased funding and support for Colombian refugees from donor states in a historically neglected region.

Even though Colombia has the second largest internally displaced population outside of Sudan, totaling 3.8 million as of 2008, and has generated the flight of somewhere around 500,000 refugees to neighboring countries, Colombian refugees remain largely invisible on the world scene – in part because they are not warehoused in camps and thus do not fit the image of refugee populations often broadcast by the world media. While UNHCR recognizes the Colombian refugee and IDP population as one of their “largest populations of concern,” the budget for refugee relief, recognition, orientation, and integration in the region is notoriously under-funded by donor states. Despite, the absence of refugee camps in Ecuador, the majority of Colombian refugees live in desperate situations, without access to education for their children, health care, or legal job opportunities. Food rations for refugees and refugee applicants were suspended by the World Food Program this year, making the refugee situation all the more precarious. “We are clinging on by our fingernails,” reported one refugee who had fled Colombia because of government persecution nearly 5-years-ago. Although she and her family have tried to register as refugees in Ecuador, their case has been turned down by Ecuadorian authorities, in the face of overwhelming evidence proving the merits of her family’s story.

JRS offers a wide range of services to refugees in Ecuador. JRS-Ecuador operates programs and advocacy out of two offices, one in Quito – the capital – and one in Lago Agrio – a town situated on the northern border. JRS also conducts civil society capacity-building programs throughout Ecuador for refugees and local populations interested in forming NGOs and advocacy groups concentrating on the rights and needs of the refugee population. JRS-Ecuador’s work ranges from educational advocacy, legal services, and psychiatric care for refugees, to community integration programs, monitoring of detention conditions, civil society coordination, and national policy development.

UNHCR is currently planning to support the Ecuadorian government in launching a plan to quickly register and provide documentation for the “invisible” Colombian refugees in three points along Ecuador’s northern border. UNHCR says the success of the registration program depends largely on funding from donor states, education of Ecuadorian authorities about the conditions facing refugees in country of origin, and monitoring and accompaniment of the massive registration process by the UN, NGOs and human rights experts. JRS hopes these efforts will provide relief for many of the refugees living in the northern border region. We remain concerned about the security situation for these refugees, in the face of numerous border incursions by illegal armed groups, and the recent violation of Ecuador’s border by the Colombian government’s armed forces.

JRS/USA calls on donor states and the United States government in particular, to increase funding for UNHCR’s assistance and protection programs in Ecuador. Donor states should also fund Ecuador’s burgeoning asylum system to encourage its progress in recognizing and providing safe-haven for Colombians fleeing violence and persecution. Increased funding will allow the growth of local integration programs, the reinstatement of food rations, and an increased focus on providing physical security for refugees who face continued threats by Colombian armed groups. UNHCR and the Ecuadorian government should take particular care to protect refugee women and children from suffering sexual exploitation and violence at the hands of Ecuadorians and Colombian armed groups within Ecuador’s borders. The problem of the detention of refugees in local jails with the criminal population persists, and must be addressed. Additionally, foreign nationals, particularly Colombians, must always be apprised of their right to seek refugee protection in Ecuador before deportation proceedings begin.

Shaina Aber
Associate for Policy

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