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Passport requirement unleashes irregular passage of Venezuelans to Ecuador
Posted On 21 Aug 2018
Ecuadornews:
Camouflaged in the caissons of trucks and going through paths without police control, dozens of Venezuelans are entering Ecuadorian territory, after which on Saturday the passport requirement entered by immigration controls.
It is one of the alternatives chosen by the Venezuelan migrants who arrived in Rumichaca and who were prevented from legally entering the migratory crossings when they did not have a passport.
They say they prefer that to having to return to Venezuela, a country from which they are fleeing in the face of the crisis. Others continue this irregular journey in their desperation to reconnect with their families in Peru and Chile, where the majority that passes through Ecuador is heading.
Ricardo Camacho, security expert and former director of the Red Cross, considered that demanding a passport from Venezuelans without having given them a prudential time, as Peru has done (which will request the requirement from the 25th), was a mistake.
For the specialist, this entry of Venezuelans by irregular steps is a consequence of the desperation of people who flee their country because they do not have food. And this could generate major problems such as coyoterism.
Camacho questioned that the Minister of the Interior has not called his counterpart from Venezuela to establish a computer connection with the police of that country that allows to collate data of the people who enter, without needing to demand their passport.
“Only 10% of Venezuelans have a passport and the rest do not have it,” he told Radio City.
Within this migratory wave of Venezuelans, Ecuador has received about 99,000 citizens of that country, according to data released by the AFP agency.
Billy Navarrete, secretary of the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, said that the government should immediately lift the measure of requesting passports to Venezuelan citizens who try to reach the country to settle or move to other destinations.
“This requirement raises a wall with a xenophobic bias to the Venezuelan population. It is not appropriate to demand documents of this type from a population that is reducing its level of economic response, “he said.
Navarrete urged the Government to lead a search for solutions, based on mechanisms that are arranged by intergovernmental organizations.
For the specialist in International Law, Carlos Estarellas, the measure of requesting passports is unconstitutional.
In his opinion, Ecuador should work together with South American countries to face the economic and security situations posed by this wave of migration.
He proposes to coordinate with UNHCR and begin to open talks between the affected countries of the region.
The former ambassador of Ecuador in Venezuela Francisco Huerta also considered that other mechanisms should be sought in the Andean region and in America, so in a joint effort to resolve the Venezuelan situation.
Huerta criticized Nicolás Maduro’s driving in the economy. “Who will want to live in Venezuela under these circumstances?” He said.
The legal advisor of the Regional Human Rights Advisory Foundation, Gabriela Flores, said that they have submitted a brief – within the process initiated by the Ombudsman’s Office – alleging that regional and international treaties are being violated in terms of valid documents to enter to Ecuador and it is limiting the migration, which is a right recognized by the Constitution.
Position
For the Ombudsman, Ernesto Pazmiño, the passport requirement for Venezuelans is like a wall. “The cruelty of these decisions ends up generating discrimination and xenophobia,” he told Sonorama radio. The defender considered that this situation can deepen the humanitarian tragedy experienced by Venezuelans.
Pazmiño recalled that Ecuador cannot forget its migratory past to Venezuela. There live 250,000 Ecuadorians who arrived from the year 1970 to 1980, during the bonanza of that country. (I)
