There were about 250 UNHCR-recognized refugees in Ecuador at the end of 1998. About half were from Colombia; 125 others were from 20 different countries. Among the latter, there were 29 from Iran, 16 from Afghanistan, and 15 from Sri Lanka. More than 30,000 Colombians were living in Ecuador in refugee-like circumstances.

The Colombians in refugee-like circumstances lived in isolated areas near the Colombian border, particularly in the departments of Carchi, Sucumbios, Imbabura, and Esmeraldas. Many have been there for as long as a decade, but some have fled to Ecuador in just the last year or two because of intensified violence in areas of Colombia near Ecuador.

Most Colombians who seek refuge in Ecuador prefer to remain anonymous. Some deliberately identify themselves as economic migrants to deflect attention from themselves and their reasons for leaving Colombia. That is because, even in Ecuador, they continue to fear the groups that persecuted them in Colombia. Colombian guerrillas and paramilitaries regularly cross the border into Ecuador.

Although neither the Colombian government nor UNHCR officially recognizes the Colombians in the border area as refugees, UNHCR accepts that many could be refugees. According to the agency, "Formal refugee statistics do not reflect the actual number of people present in Ecuador who might be eligible for refugee status." UNHCR also said that the Colombians' desire for anonymity and their being interspersed with economic migrants "pose difficulties in making international protection effective."

Their lack of documentation was also of concern. In September, UNHCR and the Episcopal (Catholic Bishops') Conference of Ecuador initiated a pilot project in Carchi Department aimed at assisting an initial 2,000 people to obtain frontier visas. Such visas would provide them legal documentation that would facilitate their stay in Ecuador.

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