Ecuador Passport Law

Recently Ecuador has changed the old law which allowed migrants from Venezuela to enter the
country without a passport. Now the country needs a passport from any migrant of any
nationality. This does though make some problems as most migrants from Venezuela do not
have passports as their Government does not issue passports for people leaving the country.
This has lead to many things like -

1. Population Explosion around the border

2. People have to leave their family as all members don’t have passports.
3. People are living in pathetic conditions in tents with no money or food.

But Christian Kruger, head of Colombia's migration authority, said on Friday Colombia has been
bending the rules on migration issues to give a "helping hand" to Venezuelans.

"We're taking about 3,000 people a day. If they start to accumulate we'll see a large population
around this area."

He did not elaborate, but a buildup of refugees in and around Ipiales now seems unavoidable.

This year alone, 423,000 Venezuelans have entered Ecuador through the Rumichaca border

On 21 February 2012, the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the UN organized an informal

discussion to analyze the concept of Responsibility to Protect, a concept that complements and
supplements the shortcomings of the concept of Responsibility to Protect. The Brazilian
proposal, to which my country attaches great importance, is based on the three pillars
established in Resolution No. A/RES/60/1 of 2005: 1) The State has the primary responsibility to
protect its populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic
cleansing, and incitement to the commission of such crimes. 2) The international community is
responsible to encourage and help States to exercise this responsibility and 3) the international
community has the responsibility to use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other
appropriate mechanisms to protect populations from these crimes… We consider it essential to
bring this valuable contribution to the debate in a country of our region about an issue that
concerns us all and all and it is the responsibility of the entire international community.
Especially in these times when discussing the legal and moral policy of targeted killings, the
question, Mr. President, is whether such policies are part of the authority of any government,
so that we can kill each the other without having any pesky legal implications or whether, on
the contrary, such killings are but a simple act of international terrorism, which is worthless
legal and moral legitimacy.

Ecuador is host to Latin America’s largest refugee population. Estimates from 2016 put the
population of concern at 127,436, of which 60,253 were registered refugees. The majority of
these are Colombian, fleeing an internal conflict between government, paramilitary groups,
crime syndicates, and left-wing guerrillas that began in the 1960s. Today, many others are
arriving in Ecuador from locations as far as Afghanistan and Syria. These refugees and forced
migrants are attracted in part by the country’s remarkably progressive approach to migration,
which serves as a powerful counter-example to current global trends of border securitization
and social exclusion of migrant populations. Ecuador’s legal and policy framework fully
incorporates international commitments to refugee rights into its domestic legislation.

The service is currently being provided in Quito, the port city of Guayaquil and Cuenca, in the
Andes mountain range. But as many refugees live in remote areas, UNHCR, through its local
partner Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, HIAS, is helping them travel to the cities to receive their
cards.

Quito (AFP) - Ecuador will organize a meeting of 13 Latin American countries to discuss the
Venezuelan migrant crisis, Quito's top diplomat said on Tuesday.

More than two million people have fled economic collapse in Venezuela during a four-year
recession, according to the United Nations, piling pressure on neighboring countries as well as
others further afield.

Ecuador and Peru have announced tighter entry measures to control the influx of Venezuelans,
leaving many stranded on those countries' northern borders with Colombia.

The latter's migration director, Christian Kruger, on Tuesday called on Colombia's southern
neighbors to agree on a common strategy to address the problem.

Last week, both Ecuador and Peru announced they would require Venezuelans to show
passports to enter their countries, but Kruger said he was "worried about the consequences" as
around half of Venezuelans heading south through Colombia are carrying only ID cards.

Kruger told W Radio that while the migrant crisis "isn't Peru, Ecuador and Colombia's
responsibility" he wants the three to "work together in a coordinated manner, employing
similar policies to address this phenomenon."

Regional giants Brazil, Argentina and Mexico were among the invitees to the Ecuador meeting,
as well as Venezuela itself.

Others include impacted countries such as Colombia, Peru and Chile.

Ecuador's deputy migration minister, Santiago Chavez said it was important to establish policies
to "confront in the best manner and most responsible way, the unusual flux of Venezuelan
citizens."

Colombia has been flooded by more than a million Venezuelans over the last 16 months and
Kruger was critical of the Peruvian and Ecuadoran moves last week.
Asking for a passport isn't going to stop migration because they're leaving their country not out
of choice but out of necessity, he said.

But Chavez insisted that "the worst thing that can happen to the country is migratory chaos in
which no one knows what happens to the foreign citizens that enter."

Almost 550,000 Venezuelans have entered Ecuador since the start of the year but claims that
only 20 percent of those remain, with the rest continuing on to Peru and Chile.

Worst thing that can happen to a country is having an undocumented foreign population.

We want this migration to take place in an orderly and secure fashion and the way to do this is
to identify this population.

More than 800,000 Venezuelans have been given temporary residency in Colombia since the
migrant crisis began.

What measures can the international community offer to increase civilian security that
ultimately leads to stabilization and peace?
Answer: For nationalities with on-going wars, help for the refugees from the neighboring
nationalities is a solution.

In March 2007, the Government of Ecuador publicly launched Plan Ecuador as a State policy for
the northern border of our country. Plan Ecuador conceives human security and solidarity as
the result of the building of peace and development; of an equitable and supportive
international relations policy; and of a defense policy based on the protection of the country’s
population, resources and wealth, with an effective control of the national territory. Plan
Ecuador, faced with the impacts of the Colombian internal conflict on Ecuadorian society,
guides its efforts on the basis of a preventive, multidimensional and multi-sectorial approach,
aimed at solving the serious economic and social problems caused by poverty, exclusion and
violence. The fundamental principles of Plan Ecuador are:

a) Peace and cooperation as a system of cohabitation among States;

b) Rejection of external aggression, non-intervention in the Internal affairs of other countries

and sovereign equality in the relations among States, particularly neighboring States; and,

c) Cooperation and shared responsibility in the achievement of the objectives of development

among the various institutions of the State of Ecuador and the organizations of society.

GSL SPEECH

In Terms of how many refugees Ecuador receives most of the time, the Government has been
bending the laws a lot recently. Most of the refugees received are Columbian and the rest are
Venezuelan. This month only, the laws for refugees changed where they now also had to have a
Passport. Though it was criticized a lot on by the refugees stating that Venezuela does not issue
Passports leaving the country, it has been done to control the population entering as we do
need to keep a count. Ecuador is Latin America’s largest refugee hosting country, having
recognized 61,114 by the end of March, 2017; almost all of them – 97 per cent - displaced by
violence in neighboring Colombia and the rest Venezuelans.

Also since November 2017 around 1100 refugees have received the ID Cards allowing them full
national rights in Ecuador.

Estimates from 2016 put the population of concern at 127,436, of which 60,253 were registered
refugees. The majority of these as well are Colombian

But in 2018 almost 550,000 Venezuelans have entered Ecuador since the start of the year but
claims that only 20 percent of those remain, with the rest continuing on to Peru and Chile.

Ecuador’s refugee policy has two sides:

A. On the one hand, guaranteeing full protection of the vulnerable population, in a broad sense
of the word. This policy expression includes not only the respect for International Humanitarian
Law by the State of Ecuador, but also the guarantees that shall be granted to ensure the
effective exercise Ecuador’s Refugee Policy 21 of human and citizen rights by foreign refugees
established in our country.

B. The second aspect of the Ecuadorian refugee policy is the guarantee that must be offered
for an effective and lasting solution to the situation of refugees. The ideal solution would be the
voluntary and dignified return of refugees to their country of origin, the Republic of Colombia;
unfortunately, this option is highly unlikely, due to the negative dynamics of the armed conflict
in Colombia.

Solutions:

There are 2 ways to tackle this situation-

1. Stopping the conflict itself

2. Keeping citizens away from the war zone or help them escape in the form of refugees.

Syria became an independent republic in 1946, although democratic rule ended with a coup in
March 1949, followed by two more coups the same year. The Syrian Civil War grew out of the
unrest of the 2011 Arab Spring and escalated to armed conflict after President Bashar al-Assad's
government violently repressed a revolt. The Syrian government has since then refused efforts
to negotiate with what it describes as armed terrorist groups. The war is being fought by
several factions: the Syrian Government and its various supporters, a loose alliance of Sunni
Arab rebel groups (including the Free Syrian Army), the majority-Kurdish Syrian Democratic
Forces, Salafi jihadist groups (including al-Nusra Front) who often co-operate with the Sunni
rebels, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The factions receive substantial
support from foreign actors, leading many to label the conflict a proxy war waged by both
regional and global powers.

Since the Syrian civil war officially began March 15, 2011, families have suffered under brutal
conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, torn the nation apart, and set back the
standard of living by decades. Today 13.1 million people in the country need humanitarian
assistance.

More than 5.6 million Syrians have fled the country as refugees, and 6.1 million are displaced
within Syria — as internally displaced people (IDPs). Half of the people affected by the terrible
results are children. Most of them are in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Germany

SOLUTIONS: