1,500 Colombian refugees flee to Ecuador every month

[Judi Lynn]

1,500 Colombian refugees flee to Ecuador every month
Monday, 20 June 2011 10:39
Tom Heyden

Around 1,500 Colombians every month, some 18,000 per year, flee to neighboring Ecuador in order to escape the armed conflict in the country, where they face xenophobia and uncertaintly over their futures, Spanish news agency EFE reported Monday.

Ecuador currently has 54,500 recognized refugees, with more than 25,000 applications still pending, making it the largest recipient of refugees in all of Latin America. Some 98% of these refugees are Colombian, forming part of the over 5 million displaced Colombians. In comparison, Colombia has 151 refugees, according to the U.N.

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Jose Sandoval called on the entire international community to recognize the "shared responsibility" of financing refugee areas and helping to resettle some of the refugees in other countries.

Juan Villalobos, of the Jesuit Refugee and Migrant Service (JRMS) in Ecuador, explained that many of these refugees face discimination and indifference on the part of native locals and called on people to "put oneself in the shoes of the refugee," to understand "what happens to them and why they come" to the country with often nothing but "the clothes they are wearing."

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/17079-1500-colombian-refugees-flee-to-ecuador-every-month.html