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LATIN AMERICA |
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Ecuador Grants
Refugee Visas To Over
16,000 Colombians
QUITO - Ecuador's
government has issued refugee visas to over
16,000 displaced Colombians in provinces
bordering Colombia, the Foreign Ministry
announced in a statement Thursday.
A survey, launched in March, is currently
underway in the country's southeastern
province of Succumbios, an area said to have
the highest number of Colombians displaced
by that nation's internal conflict.
"The efficient, expedite and trustworthy
character of the broad register has allowed
use to recognize 16,083 Colombians as
refugees," the statement said.
"Via identification and documentation of the
refugee population in its territory, which
could be 135,000 people, the Ecuadorian
state is fulfilling programs in terms of
international refugee protection," it
continued.
The census, which costs the nation 44
million U.S. dollars annually, has been
praised by the United Nations High
Commission for Refugees.
The government now plans to regularize
55,000 Colombians, or 10percent of the
refugee population.
Ecuador severed its diplomatic ties to
Colombia in March 2008 because of Colombia's
attack on an anti-governmental guerrilla
camp on Ecuadorian territory.
The attack, which caused 25 deaths, was
denounced by the Organization of American
States and was widely considered to be an
assault on Ecuadorian sovereignty.
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