Since 2018, 547,000 Venezuelans have entered Ecuador and 385,000 have settled in Peru

Due to the economic, political and social situation in Venezuela, thousands of Venezuelan citizens have decided to emigrate to other Latin American countries, such as Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile. These countries have adapted their migration regulations for the Venezuelans arriving in their countries. However, some of these countries have also adopted other measures to support the security in their territories. One of these measures is the presentation of the passport to enter.

Leer en español: Venezolanos tendrán que presentar el pasaporte para entrar a Ecuador y Perú

Since 2018, 547,000 Venezuelans have entered Ecuador, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Although Ecuador is one of the points of travel to reach the southern border with Peru and Chile, an average of 72,000 Venezuelans remain in Ecuadorian territory, according to Migration data.

In early August, the government issued a migration emergency as a result of the arrival of 4,200 Venezuelans per day in the provinces of Carchi, El Oro and Pichincha, said a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry of Ecuador. In this statement it was announced that the objective is to establish a contingency plan and necessary mechanisms for humanitarian assistance.

In addition, from Saturday August 18, Ecuador began to demand the presentation of the Venezuelan passport as a requirement to enter the Ecuadorian territory, as announced by Interior Minister Mauro Toscanini, whose information was ratified by the Foreign Ministry of Ecuador.

Until recently, Venezuelans could enter Ecuador as members of the Andean Community by presenting the identity card due to the difficulty of obtaining a passport in their country due to the lack of material and the bureaucratic procedures that delay the delivery of the document. Therefore, the requirement of a passport could mean the closing of the Ecuadorian border for many of Venezuelans in transit.

For the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry "the identity cards they carry when entering the Ecuadorian territory do not have the necessary assurances for identification in the type of readers established by the Ecuadorian migratory system, so it is not possible to validate their authenticity. or deterioration, others lack bar codes or chips, so they are considered highly falsifiable documents."

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As of August 5, Venezuelans will also have to present a passport to enter Peruvian territory, one of the Latin American countries with the most established Venezuelans. The National Migration Superintendency estimated that some 385,000 Venezuelans have settled in Peru for at least a year, while in 2016 an average of 6,600 Venezuelans resided.

The decision strengthens the partisan migration policy that Peru has been showing towards Venezuela in recent years, but it will have repercussions on the Temporary Permit of Permanence (PTP) that can only be requested by Venezuelans who enter Peru until October 31st, according to the supreme decree signed by President Martín Vizcarra and Interior Minister Mauro Medina.

The situation is similar to that of Ecuador, the identity card becomes an unreliable document and limits the procedures of legalization of Venezuelans in the territories to emigrate. In Peru, for example, five Venezuelan citizens were detained by the National Police of Peru (PNP, by its acronym in Spanish) because they were allegedly about to rob a bank in a well-known shopping center in northern Lima.

The head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (Dirincri) of the PNP, Juan Carlos Sotil, said that the five Venezuelan criminals detained were part of a dangerous criminal organization in Venezuela called "El Tren de Aragua".

LatinAmerican Post | Diana Ramos

Translated from "Venezolanos tendrán que presentar el pasaporte para entrar a Ecuador y Perú"