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RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 4223
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 3644
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ JUL LIMA 3320
RUEHGL/AMCONSUL GUAYAQUIL 4494
RHMFISS/HQ USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
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RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL

UNCLAS QUITO 000609 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF PHUM KCRM KWMN PGOV SMIG SNAR SOCI EC CO
SUBJECT: ECUADOR: REFUGEE CONDITIONS IMPROVING, BUT 
SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES REMAIN 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1. (U) Ecuador hosts the largest refugee population in the 
Western Hemisphere with 25,000 registered refugees and 
another 135,000 Colombians living in a refugee-like 
situation.  Colombian refugees have poured into Ecuador as a 
result of Colombia's conflict for the past nine years.  The 
Colombia-Ecuador border is porous and Colombian refugees 
continue to enter Ecuador on an individual basis; there are 
no reliable statistics on the flow.  Access to services has 
improved in recent years, but insecurity, discrimination, 
lack of adequate housing, and lack of formal employment 
remain significant challenges to local integration.  In 
March, the Government of Ecuador (GOE) and UN High 
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched the Enhanced 
Registration program to register 50,000 Colombian refugees in 
one year.   In the first seven weeks, the government 
registered more than 5,000 refugees, accounting for 20 
percent of the total number of refugees recognized since 
¶2000.  The program, however, is in jeopardy due to budget 
shortfalls.  The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and 
Migration (PRM) has approved an additional $250,000 
contribution to UNHCR to help keep the program going.  (End 
Summary) 
 
¶2. (U) Kate Pongonis, PRM/ECA Program Officer, and Scott 
Higgins, Andes Regional Refugee Coordinator, visited Ecuador 
May 7-11, 2009 to conduct monitoring and evaluation of PRM 
funded activities, as well as to assess conditions for 
refugees and asylum seekers living in the northern border 
region.  They met in Quito and the field (San Lorenzo and 
Esmeraldas) with Government of Ecuador (GOE) officials from 
the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Internal and External 
Security Coordination, as well as with PRM-partners UNHCR, 
International Organization for Migration (IOM), Hebrew 
Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), and Catholic Relief Services 
(CRS). 
 
Colombian Refugees )- The "Invisibles" in Ecuador 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶3. (U) Ecuador hosts the largest refugee population in the 
Western Hemisphere with some 25,000 refugees recognized since 
¶2000.  In a survey completed in 2008, UNHCR estimates that 
another 130,000 to 140,000 Colombians are living in a 
refugee-like situation in Ecuador, approximately 40 percent 
of whom are located in the northern border area.  Over the 
past nine years, Colombian refugees have crossed the border 
into Ecuador as a result of Colombia's drug-funded conflict, 
fleeing persecution, threats, murders, deliberate 
displacement and recruitment by leftist guerrillas, including 
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).  Most 
refugees are without documentation, living as "invisibles" in 
fear of deportation and are unable to work legally. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Luis Varese, deputy representative for UNHCR, told 
us that policies and access to services (especially health 
care and education) have improved for refugees in recent 
years, but significant gaps remain in humanitarian assistance 
and full access to rights.  Insecurity, discrimination, lack 
of adequate housing, and lack of formal employment 
opportunities remain the most significant challenges for 
local integration.  The recently completed UNHCR Global Needs 
Assessment (GNA) estimates that Ecuador requires $22 million 
to fully assist refugees for 2009-2011, including $11 million 
in 2009 alone. 
 
Difficult Security Conditions on Northern Border 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Ricardo Moreno Oleas, vice minister of the Ministry 
of Internal and External Security, provided a briefing on the 
security conditions in the northern border region.  Moreno 
noted that despite some 12,000 military and police posted 
along the northern border, the local and refugee populations 
still do not feel safe because illegal armed groups (FARC and 
ELN), emerging criminal bands (Aguilas Negras, Los Rastrojos, 
and Organizacion Nueva Generacion), narco-traffickers, arms 
traffickers, and smugglers of other contraband easily cross 
into Ecuador from Colombia and operate in the northern border 
 
area.  The GOE plans to conduct border security surveys every 
three months to monitor conditions, and is organizing 
regional cabinets in Esmeraldas and Sucumbios Provinces with 
the purpose of increasing the presence of State services. 
 
¶6. (SBU) In a separate UNHCR briefing on security, Varese 
said that the Colombia-Ecuador border is porous and that 
refugees continue to cross individually ("gota a gota" in 
Spanish) into Ecuador.  No organization -- including the GOE, 
UNHCR, and IOM -- has a good idea of how many refugees are 
crossing into Ecuador.  An uptick in insecurity in recent 
years in Narino, Putumayo, and Cauca Departments in Colombia 
has contributed to the continuing flow.  The FARC, and to a 
lesser degree the ELN, threaten and extort Colombian 
refugees, local Ecuadorian leaders, local Ecuadorian 
communities, and indigenous leaders.  Confrontations among 
criminal groups in high receptor communities place refugees 
and the local community at high risk for violence.  Given 
these difficult security and integration conditions, Varese 
estimated that some 15,000 refugees will require resettlement 
to third countries in the next few years. 
 
Enhanced Registration Brings Refugees Out of the Shadows 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
¶7. (U) Based upon UNHCR's strong recommendation, the GOE is 
implementing the Enhanced Registration program ("Registro 
Ampliado" in Spanish) in an effort to bring refugees out of 
invisibility and provide them better access to their rights. 
The program, which started in late-March in Esmeraldas 
Province, will move along the northern border, with stops in 
Sucumbios, Orellana, Carchi, and Manabi Provinces, with the 
goal of registering 50,000 Colombian refugees in one year. 
The program is revolutionary because it takes the 
registration process to the field and reduces the Refugee 
Status Determination (RSD) time from nearly a year to a 
single day, in most cases. 
 
¶8. (U) In the first seven weeks of the program, the GOE's 
Directorate General for Refugees (DGR) under the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs has attended to 5,398 persons of which 5,243 
were issued refugee visas )- an issuance rate of 96 percent. 
 This represents 20 percent of the total number of refugees 
recognized since 2000 through the regular asylum procedure. 
The DGR is not making any denials of refugee status during 
this phase.  The 155 persons that did not receive refugee 
status due to incomplete information and/or security concerns 
were referred to the regular asylum process in Quito. 
 
¶9. (U) The Enhanced Registration program is comprised of two 
mobile teams with a total of 50 staff, supported by 
PRM-partners UNHCR and HIAS.  Approximately 110 applicants 
are processed each day, including 10 spots reserved for 
urgent cases.  The registration, interview, and status 
determination takes about two hours to complete.  At any time 
during the process, applicants may be referred for 
psychological evaluation and counseling with HIAS.  A health 
brigade from the local Ecuadorian Red Cross is normally 
present during the entire day, and refugee applicants can be 
referred to a local clinic or hospital if medical attention 
is required.  Applicants we spoke with were elated with the 
program. 
 
¶10. (U) German Espinosa, Deputy Director of DGR, explained 
that the Enhanced Registration eligibility commission, which 
is made up of representatives from government, international 
organizations, and civil society, uses thematic (e.g., 
victims of forced recruitment, threats and violence, 
extortion, kidnapping, and forced displacement by illegal 
armed groups) and geographic (high-risk municipalities in 
Colombia) criteria to make the Refugee Status Determination. 
There are three types of deferred cases that fall within the 
clause for exclusion: 1) those with links to the armed 
conflict; 2) those that do not plan to stay in the country; 
and 3) those that are considered economic migrants.  At the 
end of the day, an applicant receives either a refugee card 
(which provides full rights, including the right to work) or 
an asylum applicant card for those deferred to Quito (which 
provides access to health care and education, but not the 
right to work). 
 
GOE Dismisses Amnesty Concerns 
------------------------------ 
 
¶11. (SBU) Ambassador Carlos Jativa, Under Secretary for 
Multilateral Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told 
us the Enhanced Registration program had its detractors in 
the government (especially in the security forces) as being 
migratory amnesty and a strong pull factor for negative 
actors (especially the FARC).  Jativa dismissed these 
concerns pointing out that any applicant suspected of having 
links to illegal armed groups is referred to the regular 
process in Quito where more robust checks and scrutiny are 
applied.  Javita added that according to Ecuadorian 
intelligence services, some 400,000 to 500,000 Colombians )- 
mostly undocumented )- are in the northern border area at 
any one time.  In this respect, the registration process 
supports national security interests in that it helps the GOE 
gather information on who is within its borders. 
 
Refugee Profiles 
---------------- 
 
¶12. (U) According to applicant testimonies, most refugees 
fled violence by guerrillas and paramilitaries, coming from 
areas in Colombia where there was little or no State 
presence.  Aerial eradication of coca crops accounted for 28 
percent of the refugee claims.  Applicants said aerial 
eradication left them with no means of making a legitimate 
living because it also indiscriminately destroyed crops such 
as cacao, yucca, African palm, and plantain.  (Note: This is 
often a result of the practice of interspersing licit and 
illicit crops.  The Government of Colombia offers 
reimbursement to farmers when legitimate licit crops are 
accidently sprayed.  End Note.)  Many applicants also 
reported fleeing due to forced recruitment of their children 
and having to pay extortion ("la vacuna" in Spanish). 
Confrontation between the Colombian military and illegal 
armed groups was a lesser cause of displacement.  Some 98 
percent reported having a relative killed in the conflict. 
 
Regular Asylum Process 
---------------------- 
 
¶13. (U) UNHCR is supporting the GOE in strengthening the 
regular asylum process in Quito in an effort to reduce the 
processing time to two weeks from the current nine to twelve 
months.  There are 23,000 pending asylum petitions in the 
regular asylum process, including 16,000 first instance cases 
and 7,000 appeals.  All backlogged and new cases will now be 
considered using the thematic and geographic criteria from 
the Enhanced Registration process, and interviews will be 
conducted on the same day asylum seekers register with the 
government, rather than having to return at a later date.  To 
handle this additional workload, the DGR will strengthen its 
Quito office with 14 new personnel, initially paid for by 
UNHCR and the IOM, at a cost of $245,000. 
 
Budget Shortfalls Threaten Program 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶14. (U) The $2.16 million cost for the Enhanced Registration 
program was supposed to be shared 50-50 between UNHCR and the 
GOE; however, the government is only able to pay $85,000 -- 
leaving an $823,235 deficit.  Without additional funding, the 
program will not be able to continue beyond July. 
Representatives from the GOE plan to travel to Canada, 
Switzerland, the Nordic countries, Spain, and the U.S. in 
June-July to raise awareness of the government's efforts and 
to seek more international "co-responsibility" for providing 
assistance to refugees in Ecuador.  The GOE currently spends 
an estimated $40 million a year in services for refugees, 
including education, health, social services, and the regular 
asylum procedure based in Quito.  PRM has already approved an 
additional $250,000 contribution to UNHCR to support the 
Enhanced Registration program. 
 
¶15. (U) After the Enhanced Registration program concludes in 
Esmeraldas in July, the GOE and UNHCR will hire an 
independent consultant to conduct an evaluation and draft 
lessons learned to improve the process before taking it to 
other provinces.  The GOE and UNHCR promised to share a copy 
 
of the report. 
 
¶16. (U) This cable was cleared with Andes Regional Refugee 
Coordinator Scott Higgins. 
 
HODGES