The Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry, within the framework of Migrant Day, revealed that between January and April 2024, 3,274 requests for refuge were received from Venezuelans, of which the majority are from women with 1,704. According to Nina Guerrero, lawyer for the Public Defender’s Office, since 2017, Venezuelan migration has grown by 110% according to the UN.
Ecuador is a country that receives a large number of asylum applications, especially from Venezuelans.
Posted On 20 Jun 2024
Asylum applications have changed drastically. According to Guerrero in 2017, asylum seekers had to go to the Foreign Ministry offices and attend an interview in which the defenders could not be present . However, since 2021, under the Presidency of Guillermo Lasso, asylum requests have become more flexible.
In 2017, Guerrero denounces that the majority of asylum seekers could not review what they had previously declared and were threatened: if you do not sign this paper, we will deny you asylum.
With the new regulations that were in force during the time of Guillermo Lasso, public defenders are now entering hearings with asylum seekers.
According to the Jesuit Refugee Service, which serves an average of 10,000 refugees, the majority of foreign asylum seekers are children, who represent 40%. They urge “defending the migrant because it is a long-term investment.”
Since 2024, Ecuador has received asylum requests, especially from Venezuelans, from other parts of the world such as France, Spain, the United States and Germany . According to data collected by the authorities, they are due to economic conditions and expressions of “xenophobia”, which has increased against Venezuelan citizens since the emergence of new conservative currents in European politics and due to the possible ascendancy of Donald Trump to power in the United States and Joe Biden’s immigration policies. Furthermore, many Venezuelans consider, in certain cases, a “close” country that they “know almost in its entirety,” according to the Ecuador Chequea portal.
So far in 2024, Ecuador there is an increase compared to 2023 in the increase in asylum applications. In addition to Venezuelans, those who most request asylum from Ecuador are Colombians, Peruvians, Cubans, Rwandans, Haitians, Indians, and even asylum requests have already been received from European countries such as Yugoslavia and Ukraine. Refugee requests by Gazans due to the war between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group are also not ruled out.
The reason is that Ecuador, according to Federico Agustin, UNHCR representative in the country: “Ecuador has several mechanisms and routes of care for children and adolescents that do not exist in other countries.”
Ecuador has an agreement with the United States, Canada, the European Union, Oceania, the Caribbean and Africa for the protection and development of migrants.
