Helping Colombian Refugees in Ecuador
NUEVA LOJA, Ecuador — Scared and four months pregnant, Carolina left her home in southern Colombia last April after guerillas killed her boyfriend. The 29-year-old fled her riverside village in Putumayo in the black of night with her 6-year-old son clutching at her side. Putumayo is both the epicenter of coca growing in Colombia and the stronghold of the country’s largest rebel army.
A center in Ecuador that houses Colombian refugees displaced by violence.
Carolina’s only stop before heading for safety in neighboring Ecuador was to collect her teenage son, who was staying with her mother in a nearby town.
But he wouldn’t leave.
Four months later, Carolina returned to try to convince her son, only to find guerillas dominating the town and threatening to recruit him. “The guerillas told me I needed their permission to take him,” says Carolina. “In our villages, they are the law and the justice.”
A few days later, those guerillas were replaced by a new group that had not yet laid claim to the boy. And so, for the second time in six months, Carolina made a run for her life — this time with her family intact.
These days, Carolina is safe at a shelter for refugees in the Ecuadorian border town of Nueva Loja. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which runs the shelter, has made preparations for Carolina and her family to seek asylum in Switzerland. There, the Swiss government will pay for Carolina’s education and provide day care until she learns the language and gets on her feet.
In this sense, Carolina is one of the lucky ones. Only a small percentage of Colombians fleeing the violence in their country are recognized as refugees and granted legal status and protection.
Mounting violence in Colombia has forced more people to seek refuge in Ecuador in recent years. Since 2000, an estimated 40,000 Colombians have sought asylum. Only about 400 of them have been resettled in third countries. Even in Ecuador, a country known for having an open and humane policies concerning refugees, only about 13,000 have been granted refugee status.
CRS believes hundreds of thousands more Colombians living in Ecuador have never even applied for asylum. They live in a state of legal uncertainty, forced to work in informal arrangements that often leave them open to exploitation. Perceived as outsiders, many experience discrimination and harassment. Most have little access to education and health care.
To address the needs of this vulnerable population, CRS is partnering with the Ecuadorian Bishops’ Conference Committee for Refugees to develop strategies for the care and protection of refugees in seven dioceses, including the Archdiocese of Quito, where the bulk of the refugees reside.
Education for Children a Priority
Developing creative and community-based methods for securing adequate education and social services for displaced Colombians is the first focus of the project, which ultimately aims to provide integral attention, says Patricio Benalcazar, the CRS project manager.
A group of children whose families sought refuge at the center.
This would also entail legal assistance to refugees to help protect their human rights as well as social assistance and advocacy on their behalf.
By law, the children of Colombian refugees have the right to free education, but discrimination and red tape often prevents them from exercising that right, says Patricio. Many school administrators, for example, require Colombian children to present official education documents — impossible for many Colombian families who were forced off their land and cannot return.
So in Tulcán, a small town on the northern tip of Ecuador, for example, only 400 of the 3,000 school-age Colombian children are enrolled in school — most of them in the wrong grade.
CRS and its partners are working to increase access to education for children whose families have had to flee Colombia. A large part of our effort is an awareness-raising campaign aimed at educational authorities, particularly at the provincial level.
The project also promotes cultural integration with programs that bring Ecuadorian and Colombian students together to share their customs, food and traditions. One vocational program, located in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Quito, teaches students to make the crafts of both countries.
CRS and our partners took a big step forward this past fall, when our advocacy efforts prompted the Ecuadorian Ministry of Education to sign an agreement which should help in our mission. In the agreement, the Ministry of Education committed to promoting and enforcing access to educational opportunities for children of Colombian refugees.
Ultimately, CRS’ job is to help unite and organize the civil organizations, international agencies and government groups working with Colombian refugees to advocate for policies that ensure their full participation in the educational system and other realms of public society.
