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News > Latin America

Amid Global Refugee Crisis, Ecuador Teaches Everybody a Lesson

  • Colombian refugee students at a UNHCR supported community school in Providencia, Ecuador.

    Colombian refugee students at a UNHCR supported community school in Providencia, Ecuador. | Photo: UN

Published 13 January 2017
Opinion

A new Ecuadorean law provides a progressive and humanitarian example that Europe — and the world — could learn from.

In the throes of a worsening global migrant crisis, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has singled out Ecuador's newly-passed Human Mobility Law as a model for protecting the rights of migrants and refugees.

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The bill, promoted by the government of President Rafael Correa and passed unanimously in the National Assembly last week, seeks to regularize the situation of "people on the move," including refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons and victims of trafficking.

“UNHCR, in particular, applauds the provision in the law which confers refugees a migratory status as residents, favoring their full integration and thus allowing them to contribute to Ecuador’s development. Particularly encouraging is that refugees will be granted a national identification card issued by the Civil Registry,” said UNHCR spokesperson Cécile Pouilly.

The agency highlights how the new law takes into consideration the specific situation of children in need of international protection, protects stateless persons, and proposes measures to prevent statelessness.

“In a global context of increasing forced displacement, Ecuador offers an example of comprehensive protection for all people on the move, assuming not only its international responsibilities but also enacting the rights recognized in the Ecuadorian Constitution,” added Pouilly.

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The praise for the South American country comes as the UNHCR urged European governments on Friday to "do much more" to help refugees dying in Europe's sudden cold snap instead of pushing them back from borders and exposing them to danger and violence.

Europe is facing its worst migrant crisis since World War II, which initially escalated in 2015 with hundreds of thousands of people from the Middle East and North Africa seeking asylum in EU member states. Officials say they detected over 1.83 million illegal border crossings in 2015.

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