Colombians increasingly fleeing to Ecuador

[Judi Lynn]

Colombians increasingly fleeing to Ecuador
The higher volume of migration is largely driven by increased levels of drug-fueled violence in Colombia. Ecuador has borne most of the costs of absorbing the refugees.
By Chris Kraul

February 13, 2010

Reporting from San Gabriel, Ecuador - For Mari, a 30-year-old Colombian mother of two small children, the choice was life or death: either flee to neighboring Ecuador or be killed by paramilitaries who were trying to extort $3,000 from her and her husband.

So in October, she and her family fled their small farm in southern Colombia and became part of a rising tide of refugees streaming into Ecuador. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said last month that the number of Colombian refugees tripled in the last six months of 2009, compared with the same period the previous year.

More than 80,000 Colombians are registered refugees in Ecuador and as many as 200,000 more are thought to be undocumented.

The higher volume of people fleeing Colombia is largely due to increased levels of drug-fueled violence in the border state of Narino. Rival guerrilla, paramilitary and narco gangs are vying for control of the state's cocaine traffic as well as cultivation and processing of coca, whose leaves are used to produce the drug.

More:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-fg-ecuador-refugees13-2010feb13,0,1390201.story

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