Ecuador Urges EU To
Abolish Laws Against
Irregular Immigration
Ecuador announced Monday
it will ask the European
Union (EU) to abolish
the laws it approved to
punish undocumented
foreigners in its
territory.
Ecuadorian Immigrant
Minister Lorena Escudero
said the so-called
"Return Directive,"
which established common
expulsion rules for
illegals and was
approved by the interior
ministers of the 27
member countries of the
EU last week in
Luxembourg, was "a
backlash" and
represented a tendency
to incriminate irregular
immigrants.
The law will be
discussed by the
European Parliament in
mid-June.
More than 1.2 million
Ecuadorians have legally
or illegally migrated to
the United States and
Europe in the last eight
years. Ecuadorian
authorities estimate
that some 700,000
Ecuadorians are living
in Spain.
"We will keep on
fighting for the
fundamental rights (of
the undocumented)," said
Escudero. "Because most
of the laws made on
migration issues are
based on the safety of
the EU countries but not
on the human rights."
Harshly criticized by
human rights
organizations, the new
laws on undocumented
immigrants permit
national authorities of
the EU countries to
choose between
legitimizing the illegal
immigrants or expelling
them.
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