[progchat_action] Number of Colombian refugees in Ecuador rises to 1,600
 
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:46:54 -0500 (CDT)


Number of Colombian refugees in Ecuador rises to 1,600

The Associated Press
August 26, 2007

Quito, Ecuador: The number of refugees who have recently crossed the border
into Ecuador to escape fighting between leftist rebels and soldiers in
Colombia has risen to 1,600, the United Nations and local officials said.

The refugees are being housed in 11 shelters near the border and their basic
needs are being met for now, said Andrea Escalanta, a spokeswoman for the
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, on Sunday.

Escalanta said some of the refugees might be moved from their current
location in San Lorenzo, 12 kilometers (eight miles) from the border, to
cities such as Esmeraldas or Ibarra.

UNHCR legal representatives are trying to determine how many refugees want
to seek asylum in Ecuador and how many would return to Colombia if their
safety is assured, she said.

The agency said there are now 1,600 refugees in the shelters, up from about
1,100 early Saturday. San Lorenzo Mayor Gustavo Samaniego confirmed the
figure. Relief workers say the refugees began arriving in San Lorenzo on
Thursday.

There are about 250,000 refugees living in Ecuador, most of them Colombians
who have fled an internal armed conflict that has raged there for more than
40 years.

The U.N. estimates about 3 million Colombians have been driven from their
homes by violence without leaving the country - making it the largest
internal refugee population in the world after Sudan. The government's
definition of a refugee puts the number at about 2 million.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has accused his nation's largest guerrilla
group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, of forcing peasants to
flee to Ecuador in a bid to undermine relations between the nations.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/27/america/LA-GEN-Ecuador-Colombian-R
efugees.php

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