Once the deadline for foreigners to regularize their situation in Peru expired, thousands of Venezuelans have entered Ecuador since mid-November.
Referential image of migrants.
Some 4,000 Venezuelans have entered Ecuador from Peru during the second half of November 2023. The previous Government had ruled out an “exodus” of migrants from the southern border, once the deadline for them to regularize their immigration status in that country had expired.
The head of the Ombudsman’s Office of Ecuador, César Córdova, reported on Thursday, November 30, that “4,000 Venezuelans have registered an entry into the country, but have not registered their departure.”
This report corresponds only to the income recorded in November; the Ombudsman detailed in an interview with Ecuador TV.
On November 10, the deadline for foreign citizens to initiate the procedures to regularize their immigration status expired in Peru.
The Peruvian authorities warned about the possibility of expelling those who had not completed the procedure after that date.
The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, noted on November 21 that, after that deadline expired, “voluntarily, hundreds of Venezuelans are leaving the country in the north, on the side of Tumbes,” the Peruvian region that borders Ecuador.
Humanitarian corridors
César Córdova recalled that the Ombudsman’s Office has requested the creation of humanitarian corridors for Venezuelan citizens traveling through the country.
The official said that the transit of migrants must be safe, especially for the most vulnerable groups, such as women and children.
“I am concerned that they have already entered the country and there are Venezuelans who need the support of a community … migration is a human right,” the ombudsman told the public channel.
The previous Government backed down on the possibility of creating a humanitarian corridor for Venezuelans leaving Peru, because they described the probability of a migratory exodus from the neighboring country as “low.”
