632nd Meeting, 42nd Session, Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW)

Distinguished members of the committee, distinguished members of the delegation of the Republic of Ecuador.
Ladies and gentlemen, I call to order the 632nd meeting of the committee on the Protection of the rights of all migrant workers and members of their families.
The committee will proceed with the agenda item seven, consideration of the reports submitted by state parties under the Article 73 of the Convention.
Today we will proceed in public dialogue with the consideration of the fourth periodic report of the Republic of Ecuador.
On behalf of the committee, allow me first to warmly welcome His Excellency, Mr.
Saúl Pacurucu, Deputy Minister of Human Mobility at the Ministery of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility and the head of delegation of the Republic of Ecuador to this constructive dialogue.
Allow me also to welcome His Excellcy Mr.
Mr Marcelo Vázquez-Bermúdez, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Ecuador the Republic of Ecuador to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, as well as the entire members of the delegation of Republic of Ecuador, which comprises of several experts in the delegation.
I would also like to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to the government Ecuador for positively responding to the request of the Committee for accepting to be reviewed in situ with a very high level delegation, which is in fact a manifestation of the commitment of the State party to the treaty body system as a whole and to the Committee on the protection of all migrant workers and members of their families in particular.
In this regard, I also must mention that this Committee is fortunate to have the services of one of your experts, former Ambassador, Mr.
Francisco Caron Mia is one of the expert elected this time to this Committee.
Of course, following our rules with regard to independent experts, he's not present in this room but I must say that we are thankful for Ecuador for providing an expert to this committee to assist our work.
Excellency, we conduct this dialogue in a spirit of constructive dialogue, which means that we believe that the end of our dialogue in examining the reports submitted by your country, as well as our conversations with you, that we will arrive at set of recommendations that will be beneficial for this treaty regime, as well as stakeholders and for your country to manifest your commitment towards the migrant workers in your country and migrant workers of the world in general.
And Ecuador is a very important country in that scheme of things of our work.
So we are very thankful that you have a very substantial delegation to have this dialogue with this Committee.
I now have the pleasure and honor to give the follow to His Excellency, Mr.
Saúl Pacurucu Deputy Minister for Human Mobility and Head of delegation of the Republic of Ecuador to introduce the report and to commence this discussion.
Excellency, you have the floor.
You may wish to introduce your delegation as well.
Thank you, Chair.
Good morning, distinguished committee members.
On behalf of the government of Ecuador, I would like to express our appreciation for this opportunity to share our progress and challenges in the implementation of the International Convention on the Protection of all migrant workers and members of their families.
In my capacity as Vice Minister of Human Mobility and as the head of delegation, I would like to take a moment to introduce you to my team, Ambassador Mr.
Marcelo Vázquez Permanent Representative of Ecuador at the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva.
Ms.
María José Rentería, General coordinator of Legal Advisory Services of the Directorate General of Civil Registration, and Ms.
María Fernández Guerra Ruiz, Zone one coordinator of Directorate General for Civil Registration.
We also have other colleagues from the Permanent Mission here.
The convention strengthens the commitment of the State of Ecuador to the protection of their nationals and their families abroad, while at the same time providing clear regulatory framework to address and protect the rights of migrant workers living in the country.
Ecuador is a country of origin, destination, transit, and return with more than 2.4 million nationals living abroad, about half 1 million foreign nationals residing in the country with daily transit flows of persons in situations of mobility.
Additionally, Ecuador is one of the countries with the highest number of refugees registered in the region.
Historical records are that over 81,000 people as of May 2026.
Now, this picture requires specific actions and joint work to guarantee the well being of all migrant workers and persons in need of international protection in line with the international commitments taken on by the country.
Ecuador has a national implementation plan for the Global Compact for Migration 2025, 2029.
It is the first country in the world to have both national and local approaches with paying particular attention to the specificities and best practices at each level.
The state guarantees the participation of civil society organizations, including migrants organizations when drafting, implementing, and following up on migration public policies.
We do this through the National Roundtable on human mobility, which brings together central governments, decentralized autonomous governments, international cooperation, academia, the private sector, as well as civil society.
And so the role of the autonomous decentralized governments in this regard is essential in integrating migrant workers and members of their families in the development plans and land use planning and guaranteeing effective access to public services at the local level, including health, education, and housing, regardless of their migration status.
The state has adopted instruments such as the protocol for the protection of Ecuadorians in situations of vulnerability abroad, also to search for Ecuadorians who have disappeared or are incommunicado and the repatriation of order remains, among others, which are protection mechanisms to guarantee effective, timely, and high quality assistance to Ecuadorian migrants.
I would like to underscore, specifically that Ecuador works on the basis of an orderly, safe, and regular migration, and it does this through circular migration agreements with several countries such as Germany, Australia, Canada, the UAE, Spain, the United States, France, Hungary, Israel, and Italy in sectors such as agriculture, care work, industry, and services.
These are transformative programs, given that the return migrants come back with skills, experience, and a broad perspective that promotes the development of their communities.
In the area of integration of persons in human mobility, we highlight the coordinated work of Ecuadorian state with actors such as the International Organization for Migration, UNACR and the ILO with a significant presence in the territory.
It made as possible to have projects and initiatives that include migrants in their host communities.
During the pro temporary presidency of the Quito process in 2025, we concluded the regional socioeconomic integration strategy around the following pillars.
One, mobility, international protection, regularization, two, social cohesion and family inclusion, and three, decent work and social cohesion.
2019-2025, the state of Ecuador has spearheaded various extraordinary regularization processes with the aim of providing legal stability to the migrant population, investing significant public resources in this.
So we have granted more than 104,000 visas and had a communication campaigns along with the IOM and UNHCR in order to reach the target population to address the FAQs and highlight benefits of regularization process.
In the area of labor and socioeconomic inclusion policies, the Ministry of Labor has implemented various services to facilitate access to labor market and to build on the skills and capabilities of people in human mobility.
The Public Employment Service facilitates effective and timely link between labor supply and labor demand through inclusive selection processes, and with the support of these agencies, UNHCR and the ILO, specific session online website was created to provide employers and workers with information on fair recruitment and inclusive selection processes.
In this regard, the State of Ecuador guarantees equal treatment for migrant workers and their families in labor matters through a legal framework that prohibits discrimination and ensures equal rights.
With regard to access to education, the State of Ecuador, endowed with the constitution of the Republic and the organic law and intercultural education, guarantees access to education for all children and adolescents in situations of human mobility, following the principle of equality of rights and duties.
The state has implemented specific measures to prevent sexual violence and exploitation in the educational settings, particularly targeting migrant girls through the development of a regulatory strategic framework.
Protocols and pathways have been issued with basic rights based approach, which must be activated in response to any psychosocial risk or situation of violence detected or committed within the educational system.
With regard to the protection of children and adolescents, Ecuador has a protocol for the protection of Ecuadorians in vulnerability abroad.
Its goal is to provide assistance, coordination, and support with competent national bodies and foreign local authorities in order to ensure the respect of their rights.
May I proceed? The state has implemented a normative framework for the protection of unaccopanied, or separated migrant children and adolescents, based on the principle of determining their best interest.
It is prohibited to subject this population to inadmissibility procedure or to impose administrative sanctions that would result in family separation or return to dangerous places, thereby requiring migration authorities to allow irregular entry.
With regard to protection measures for the four migrant women through its diplomatic missions and consular offices, specific measures have been adopted in order to strengthen the protection of Ecuadorians living abroad.
With paying particular attention to the prevention of gender violence, feministide, and arbitrary detention.
In order to guarantee consular assistance support and guidance on issues related to gender based violence, we have had training and awareness raising activities through workshops and informational talks aimed at the Ecuadorian community.
The goal is to improve knowledge on rights and the possible ways and avenues available to report abuses and violations of these guarantees.
The Constitution and various additional laws guarantee gender equality in the labor sphere, recognizing women's rights to have access to employment, training, professional promotion, and remuneration in equal conditions.
And regarding actions to combat human trafficking and smuggling of migrants, Ecuador has also strengthened its legal and institutional framework with an approach based on prevention, protection, prosecution, and cooperation.
We have enacted key laws and instruments such as the action plan to combat trafficking in persons, the Organic Law against trafficking in persons and smuggling migrants and various reforms to the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code.
Likewise, the Interstitutional Coordination Committee for the Prevention of trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants and the protection of victims develops and implements public policies in four areas prevention and promotion of rights, assistance and protection, investigation and prosecution, and lastly, governance.
Along these lines, important measures have been adopted in order to strengthen the detailed collection of data on cases of trafficking in persons using differentiated intersectional approaches in the design of public policies that are evidence based.
Among the progress made in the recent period, we have the launch of an interactive map on trafficking and smuggling.
It is a digital tool that is constantly being updated, and it allows us to visualize this information through various maps, charts and graphs.
In conclusion, the State of Ecuador would like to reaffirm its unwavering commitment to the full attainment of the rights of migrant workers and members of their families in accordance with the terms established by the Convention and other international human rights instruments that the country has signed and ratified.
The progress we have made and spoken about is not an end, but rather simply proof of sustained political will and institutional capacity to transform normative commitments into specific action.
Ecuador is a state that has experienced all the dimensions of migration as a country of origin of transit and destination.
It is this experience that compels us to address this phenomenon with the seriousness, level headedness, and sensitivity that it deserves.
We deeply appreciate the constructive dialogue with the committee whose observations are, for us, a tool that allows us to continuously improve.
We undertake to follow up closely to the recommendations arising from this session in order to fully comply with the convention.
Thank you.
I thank His Excellency, Mr.
Pakuku, Deputy Minister for Human Mobility and Head of delegation of the Republic of Uk du to this constructive dialogue for his introductory statement.
Excellency, the procedure for consideration of the report will be as follows.
Questions will be asked first by the two rapporteurs to be followed by other members of the committee.
You as well as delegation members as delegated by you will then provide their responses to the reporters and to the other members for their questions.
And if time allows, additional questions will be asked, followed up by responses.
And of course, we need time management in terms to have a complete dialogue, complete constructive dialogue, so I encourage the delegation and delegation members to provide precise and direct answers to in response to the committee members questions.
I now call upon the aporters to start the questions for this dialogue under the various articles of the convention.
We have two rapers, Mr.
Mohammed Sharif and Mr.
Edgar Koo Sosa.
I call upon the Sherif to have the floor first, misterarf, you have the floors.
X Fillion Monsieur President.
Many thanks, Chair.
Vice Minister of Human Mobility, Head of Delegation.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, members of the Delegation of Ecuador, dear friends and colleagues.
To begin, I would like to say how grateful we are for this opportunity to have a dialogue with you, which we hope will be fruitful, open, constructive.
As was pointed out by the chair of our committee, This fruitful dialogue, this positive interaction with your delegation is enriching both for you and for us.
Certainly, it will make our job much easier, especially having heard what the Vice Minister just said, who has said that you work with seriousness and integrity in the country, and that's really laudable.
Our approach on migration development, public policies in the area, our questions, our reactions, our comments, or observations, concluding observations on the periodic reports solely seek to assess the situation of migration and if necessary, provide new information about the quality of public policy in this area.
And to understand the level of progress made in the implementation of the convention and how it impacts the situation of migrants in your country.
Personally, I learned a great deal having worked with my colleague, professor Edgar Sosa, on your report.
I, with all due humility, recognize that unlike my colleague, my knowledge of your country It comes from visits to your country and though I come from South Africa from the South, but different part of the continent and from classes that I took in Latin America a long time ago.
Having read this official document, I read up on the geography of your country, the history, the culture, the literature of your country, which is quite rich and migration from to and through Ecuador.
I did my research, looked into academic documents.
I listened to statements in order to really understand the reality of migration in Ecuador.
We all know that the question of migration in the sub region is a complicated one and it has many challenges, namely due to the lack of data, and I'll have a question on this later, the poor control and management at the borders, changes in migration flows, the rise in violence, murder rates, trafficking in persons.
I noted with satisfaction that despite the size of this report and the many challenges, domestic difficulties, social, economic, and political issues, the many things that you have to face in spite of this, Ecuador with determination, started great projects in order to protect the rights of migrants and you have put a great deal of effort in this.
Congratulations for that.
And I note with satisfaction that Ecuador has joined a great number of regional and international instruments on human rights.
Your country, as I just said, is making great efforts to have efficient collaboration with countries in the Latin American continent in general and with those in the sub region specifically.
One of the pioneering countries for the America's Compact, which we just mentioned, and you did.
It is one of the countries leading Markesh and also you led the Quito process in order to coordinate the responses of countries in the region to the Venezuelan crisis.
2019-2025, you organized several regularization campaigns.
I don't know exactly how many people benefited from this, but in 2019, it was 50,000 and I don't know what the figures are for the years after that.
I know with satisfaction that just last week, actually, your country participated at a meeting in Santiago to Chile with Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia.
Venezuela was absent though, on migration and borders.
Here in Geneva, recently you presented the National Plan for implementing the Marrakesh plan, which has 15 of the 23 goals of the covenant on three main pillars, which were economic inclusion, social inclusion, governance and migration.
Clearly note your resolve to be a spearheading influence in migration policy, and I'll say it again, spearheading this effort.
This brings a great deal of joy to our committee, and as you have noted, we adopted general observation six on conversion protection of the rights of all migrant workers and members of their families by the Convention on Global Compact on Safe, orderly and regular migration.
And as was said by your special envoy for the forum to review my incuration, Madame Catalina Devonz who said, The new plan of Ecuador is not just a significant step for the country, Ecuador, but also a model a model to emulate for other countries.
You also tried to U commitments into public policies.
We congratulate you for that resolve, while appreciating the work done by your country in defending human rights in general.
I really like the title that you mentioned, Vice Minister, Human mobility.
You didn't say migration, you said human mobility and that's the right way to speak about this.
We will have some general questions for you, but before I do that, I would like to point out that our committee supports good initiatives and while respecting our prerogatives, we will make available our expertise in order to consolidate the protection of all migrant workers and members of their families.
My first question then relates to what I just mentioned, your plan.
As you're trying to turn international commitments into specific actions on the ground, you put together this plan.
The Vice Minister just spoke about this, working in collaboration with several stakeholders.
Adré the daily life of migrants.
I know that this comes from various consultations, but who are the stakeholders involved in the implementation of this five year plan? Who are those participating in this? You spoke that it has several levels.
You spoke national level, but also regional level.
Who is involved at that regional level? Also, is there any assessment of its effectiveness so far? If so, and even though it has been up and running for just a short time, what are the challenges, limitations, and first lessons that you have drawn from this experience? The second question regards the implementation of the streamlined, homogeneous public policies that rely on trustworthy harmonized data in keeping with national laws that would allow you to have relevant results and draw credible comparisons.
I confess to you that it's very difficult for me to find figures in your report about your country.
As you know, high quality data are essential to avoid taking risky, perilous decisions and to have well informed decisions.
Note that detailed and complicated data are required, specifically in the area of migration.
What's more, If it's irregular migration order for people in transit, the data are very important.
We need broken down data to facilitate the implementation of targeted measures to address migration, and we need that data.
It's not easy to see from here because we believe that there's a shortcoming of data, not just in your country, but in the region.
What is being done in order to address the shortage of data, since you are one of the pioneers of the America's Compact, one of the recommendations of the 23 goals is to have trustworthy data statistics.
Question about socioeconomic situation, environment, climate raises several questions.
Various Ecuadorians, and you spoke of 2.6 million, many have tried to internally displace in order to leave high risk areas and perhaps traveling internationally, taking on great risks and they go to the US or Spain, sometimes Italy, sometimes even Switzerland, hoping to find employment opportunities and to regularize their situation.
The immigration seems as a solution to address difficulties.
To flee insecurity, uncertainty, and fear.
Could you please provide trustworthy, validated relevant data on the number of people leaving, how this has changed over time, broken down by age, where have they gone geographically? What countries have they settled in? Because as I said, the countries that we have are not clearly accessible.
If you have that for us, we would really appreciate it.
Also, what is your country doing in order to implement appropriate public policies to address not just the migration challenges of Ecuadorians living abroad, but also to involve the diaspora in the development process? Where is your consular service distributed geographically in order to assist your nationals abroad? How are they distributed in terms of the countries that your nationals migrate to and what measures have been taken in order to improve the consular protection services of Ecuadorian migrants and their families abroad in general and in the United States specifically? Where the current context, where the American government has not just closed the main ways to be granted asylum and protection.
I'm thinking about the some of the mechanisms that have been created recently, but also the increased border security on the border with Mexico and many foreigners have been expelled with sometimes violent conditions by restraining them, sending them to third countries, and separating them from their families.
So in this context, your country is facing the return of some of these country nationals that have been sent back from the US, which doubtless represents a logistic and humanitarian challenge of the greatest scale.
Perhaps providing them assistance right away, psychological support, medical support, social reinsertion, and economic reintegration would be a priority.
All of us remember the attempts of the US forces to enter by force the Consulable Office of Ecuador last January, and also the statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gabriella immerfeld before the Commission of International Relations of the National Assembly.
Saying that measures are taken in order to assist migrants that have been sent back as part of the response of the US to clandestine migration.
Please provide us with information on practices and complaint mechanisms and access to legal, medical, psychological assistance provided by your embassy or consular services in the United States in order to assist and protect the rights of migrants that have been victims of violence, abuse, exploitation, arrest, the detention or threats of expulsion.
I just want to ask questions for now on the well known, the measures that the minister mentioned, what do they consist of and how are they implemented and thus far, who implements them, the limits thereof, if you've mentioned limits to enforcement and what has happened to migrants who were expelled and who are taken care of as part of that strategy.
I had thought I understood that the Ecuadorian government offered a $470 US dollar allocation for the first few months? I don't know if that's still in place.
Can you tell us how many people this has been given to, what's happened to them? What are the grants that you've mentioned and what do they consist of? Prior to explosion, because there were three stages, of course, before, during, and after, is there any legal support, any social, economic, and medical support during the deportation proceedings? Do you have figures as to the numbers of people in detention in the US and elsewhere? What are the numbers of voluntary returning people? Can you break those down by gender and age? Are they children? Are they women? During the return, please, can you tell us what measures are taken to ensure a dignified safe return for migrants and their families and describe the host protocol in the case of expulsion proceedings from the United States, deportation proceedings from the US? How is the hosting done? How are people identified? How do you identify vulnerable people, including repatriated women who've been victims of gender based violence and sexual exploitation? Provision of medical care and detention condition verification mechanisms prior to deportation and so on.
Once in Ecuador, what is your country doing to raise awareness and to inform and to support individuals, to reduce or to mitigate their suffering, both physical suffering, social and psychological suffering.
With that, not to mention the fact that most of them, as has been shown by very many studies, have debt affecting their possibilities of lasting reintegration.
They had credit before they left and they've come back in debt.
In this context of the measures or programs in place to promote and to encourage them becoming economically empowered, some kind of income earning possibility.
What happens to the social networks of those being deported, those who've worked abroad for many years? Are there any bilateral agreements ensuring the exportability of their social rights in terms of transfer of personal effects and their savings? How can they do that? How can they transfer the remittances, particularly given that the US is the main source of these remittances for migrant workers? Followed by Spain and less so Italy.
If my data is correct in 2025, transfers reached a historic record 7/7000000 dollars, so this is an increase of 18.2% compared to 2024 when it was 6.5 billion.
How can you explain that change? Is it linked to the deportations of the deportees who were sending? What's the link how can you explain that significant jump? There are funds also which ensure safety and security for families.
They fund medical care and accommodation, injecting direct liquidity into homes.
The remittances from migrants also play a key role in maintaining social peace.
Now, I had understood that you had taken a number of measures.
Such as a tax on sending that money and receiving it.
We know that the transfer cost is already very expensive.
If in addition to that, you've got a tax on those remittances, that's a lot for them.
There are also other elements that have entered into force to regulate those financial flows.
Now let me turn to another, and this will be my last question on this subject.
Ecuador has long been considered as a safe haven.
Okay.
Relatively recently in the sub region, it would now seem and I say seem that since the beginning of 2026, There has been a fall in homicides in certain broader areas thanks to joint police army operations, but I think things have improved somewhat.
The country has seen an increase of 800% of homicides 2018-2023.
That's very high following a slight fall in 2024.
There were nonetheless 7,063 deaths and the violence increased by 30% to reach 9,316 deaths.
With these figures, this puts Ecuador.
We're talking about Huge numbers and the international average is eight per 1,000, but Ecuador was doing worse than that.
It would seem that the province of del Rios has registered the most alarming rate with 130.4 per 1,000 deaths.
It would seem that foreigners would then be facing xenophobia, growing challenges with social integration, and other challenges to the situation.
I'll leave it there for now and I'll come back later.
Thank you for giving me the floor chair.
Thank you, miss Sharif, for your questions and comments.
I now give the floor to rapporteur, Mr.
Edgar Cosa Sosa.
You had the floor, sir.
Thank you very much indeed, Chairman.
First of all, I very much would like to thank the delegation from the Ecuadorian government for being here with us this afternoon.
It's vitally important for us.
This conversation, which helps us better understand the human rights protection in the relevant state in which the constructive dialogue plays a key role in.
We know it's not easy, but we're particularly glad to see you and we're particularly glad to see the head of delegation, the Deputy Minister, Mr.
Papuco who has been C, I'm sure Clay Kb is part of this constructive dialogue.
I'd also like to very much welcome Mr.
Marceo Vasquez Bemules Ambassador permanent Representative of Ecuador to the United Nations Office and the entire delegation accompanying them both from the Permanent missssion and from the Director General of the Civil Registry.
I'd like to cover the following questions.
I'm going to group them thematically because in each theme that I'm going to mention, I'm going to ask sub questions because they're quite broad themes.
We'll start with the first regularization.
In the State Party's report, Paragraph 174, it says that three extraordinary regularization processes have been implemented, which have made the country be a bench mark a regional leader, particularly for Venezuelans.
The third was in 2024 and from then on, nothing more has been done.
It says in the same report in paragraph 181 that in March 2025, the 11th of March, there was an executive decree which suspended the implementation of the special regularization procedure.
On re evaluating and realigning foreign aid.
This, of course, has affected various international organizations.
Here, I'd like you to give us information to the suspension and the impact thereof, if there's been an impact on international financing, particularly if there haven't been alternative channels of financing envisaged.
Because it would seem that this is a decision that is solely as a determination, if you will, taken by The US and this isn't something at the national level.
Is there any way of finding alternative means of funding We also have to take into account the joint needs assessment where it states that 70% of those identified as being in a migratory situation are irregular.
There's a good percentage of people in an irregular situation.
This is striking because the state has implemented protocols to take care of unaccompanied or separated minors in special protection services for migrants.
Since the end of the last program regularization, the state has not implemented any standing permanent mechanism which would make their regulatory status viable, particularly to say for children and adolescents.
Particularly because given the information that we have, according to registries from the Human Development Ministry, there are around 800 cases that have been identified of girls and adolescents with the need to see their regulatory status migratory status regulated.
There are a number of cases that aren't registered, of course, what are you planning to do to address this? What measures are you planning to take to remedy the situation? Along the same lines on regularization, You talk a lot about migrant workers in an irregular situation.
The state has reported that, according to the information that we have anyway, over 350,000 certificates of these migratory permits have been handed down.
This is positive data, but the regularization programs that you've implemented have not been very broadly disseminated.
And they do contain requirements that are difficult to obtain such as a passport, an ID document, and apostated criminal precedents, apostle criminal records, which are not necessarily in place for other countries.
The costs are also high.
From the information that we've got, the cost would be around $65 per person.
That's in addition to the cost of going to a migration office or getting there and the cost for any additional family members.
A large number of people remain outside of these regularization programs, or they have made this effort that doesn't reach an awful lot of people, even if they've got their certificate of residency, their migration residence certificate.
According to the Vert one, the temporary residence visas There was quite a low number issued through 2024 out of the total applications and this Verte document is temporary.
It only lasts for two years and two years that can be extended for further two years or four years in total.
There are no other alternatives for permanent regularization.
Once these temporary visas once they have expired, the number of migrant workers in an irregular situation could well increase considerably.
You should also bear in mind that this Verte document, the temporary residence Visa, is just issued on an extraordinary basis while the regularization program is underway.
It doesn't cover those who have entered Ecuador subsequent to the beginning of that program, including those from Venezuela who left their country, following the 2024 elections.
Moreover, I should also flag the reform on human mobility to the human mobility law.
We'll come back to this, but this is in October 2025, and it increased the discretion of the granting of visas because of the so called threat to public security.
It limited regularization on family links and made it conditional upon certain grounds and visas can also be revoked more easily.
The presumption of innocence doesn't prevail and there are also as I say, there are costs.
This creates a vicious circle.
If people have fines, then it means that they can't see their system regularized.
It's a vicious circle, as I say.
I'd like you to explain where this has come from? This information that we've had, we'd like to hear your views on it.
Are you planning to do anything to do with this? Are you considering making your proceedings more flexible in terms of access to documentation, given that it's impossible for many people to access this documentation, they can therefore suffer from human rights abuses.
Could you consider making the granting of the visas low cost or free If also with the suspension of the cooperation with Venezuela, could you consider specific measures for the Venezuelan population who can't get documentation for causes outside of their own control? Could you consider alternative regularization procedures for Venezuelans? Could you avoid the discretionary nature of the authorities conduct? Could you remove the pecuniary sanctions in line with the constitutional court ruling? I can't go without mentioning the fact that previously this committee in its concluding observations from 2017 and this year as well, We have repeated a recommendation that had already been issued to Ecuador to the effect that redoubling efforts to draft and implement a comprehensive policy for migratory regularization, which is affordable, accessible and affordable to all migrant workers and members of their families in an irregular situation.
The effort that the state has made through its Verte documents to do this thesis is key.
It shows its will to act and the Deputy Minister referred to this in his opening remarks.
It's not the starting point, it's not the end point, it's the starting point.
The state is obviously keen to promote regular migration, but that is not entirely accessible and affordable to all migrant workers and their families who are in an irregular situation as this committee has previously recommended.
So that's on the first issue, the questions on regularization and the information that we have there.
The second topic relates to the fact that as a consequence of the first situation, there is a clear impact on those in an irregular situation because they can't get regularized, they are obliged to undertake informal labor to meet their basic needs, mostly in very precarious labor conditions.
We have information to the effect that this includes long days, sometimes without rest days, being paid far under the minimum wage without any contracts with it being difficult to access any justice for employer abuses and people are likely to be victims of human trafficking.
All of this comes from information that we have received in migratory regularization programs that we've referred to, the report on migration and refugee needs from 2023.
And the document from 2024 on migrants needs.
Now, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the lack of documentation, regular migratory documentation has a key impact.
The fact that people don't have a regular migratory status, although they don't have valid documents, means that they can't have access to formal contracts.
It makes it very difficult for them to negotiate and it increases their exposure to labor exploitation.
Leading to salaries far below the minimum wages far below the minimum, as we've said.
Here, we want to echo the recommendations from another human rights duty body, and I'm referring to the committee on the elimination of racial discrimination.
This from 2024.
This is a sister committee to ours and they have recognized efforts that Ecuador has undertaken in migratory regularization.
But that committee, and we are concerned that despite that progress, migrants, particularly those in Venezuela, continue to face barriers in access to employment, Social Security, health, and education.
The recommended to Ecuador that it redouble efforts to regularize the situation of those in need of international protection so as to promote therefore socio economic integration, to step up measures to remove barriers to access to health.
So on this second topic, I'd like to hear your views or any information you may have.
Do you think that the regularization of these workers should continue or has the government thought about issuing measures to address the situation which deeply endangers the enjoyment of human rights of migrant workers? Let me turn now to the third theme, abuse and crimes against migrants.
In paragraph 18 of your report, the State party's report, you state that when it comes to prevention, investigation and punishment of crimes against migrants by state and non state actors, the government reiterates that the criminal and constitutional legal framework applies fully to the protection of migrants.
Complaint mechanisms have been strengthened by the ombudsman's office, ensuring that alleged violations committed by public officials in the context of migration control operations or by non state actors are investigated and the perpetrators prosecuted and punished in accordance with the law and with due diligence.
Here, I'd like to ask you to provide us please with more detailed information about the strengthening of these mechanisms.
Taking into account the scope of the work done.
Do you have statistics? Do you have data that would help us better understand the impact that the strengthening of these complaint mechanisms has actually had.
Let me move to my fourth topic, transfer to Ecuador of people from third countries.
Agreement between the US and Ecuador from July of 2025 enabled Ecuador to have transferred people from third countries in the region from January 2026.
In the media, there have been cases of nationals from Cuba, Venezuela, and Guatemala who were transferred to Ecuador, where they have no links or any support networks.
It's not known whether the decision to transfer those individuals was taken under the principles of respect for basic human rights.
By an individualized assessment and with their consent to be transferred to Ecuador.
However, although this should have been conducted by descending country, it's also the responsibility of the Ecuadorian state to ensure that those safeguards be respected before allowing the transfer of a person from a third country to Ecuadorian territory.
Ecuador also has the obligation of ensuring that these people have access to asylum proceedings or migration regularization proceedings Could you please give us official detailed information as to the content scope and the obligations shouldered by Ecuador, as well as mechanisms to implement this agreement? Because if we have that information, we can analyze how compatible the conduct of Ecuador has been with international human rights standards, particularly when it comes to the principle of non refoulement and the right to request asylum.
Let me move to issue number five.
Reform to the Organic Law on human mobility from October 2025 and states of emergency or exception.
There are some generic aspects that I want to touch upon where we can say that there have been provisions included that would have an impact on national security.
The implementation thereof depends on regulation.
We don't know if The regulations that have been developed are still pending or if they've been passed.
We're talking in general terms about the harshening of administrative sanctions including the prohibition of entry for long periods and expedited deportation proceedings, including during states of emergency without any kind of prior judicial oversight.
There have also been requirements established for residency that are harsher.
We flag that 2022-2026, we have information to the effect that there have been at least five states of emergency or exception because of grave domestic unrest or serious domestic unrest and that of course, has an impact on the situation of migrants at that time.
We also have information, for example, that the national police force and the law enforcement agencies require migrants to prove their regular situation in the country.
Transit to other provinces has been prohibited.
And we have information to the effect that restrictions of freedom of movement through the imposition of curfews has all the more affected migrant workers in street situations.
Based on all of that, We've, we've also had information from some marches that took place in May 2024, February, March 2024, as part of the state of emergency, there was a particular case of a Venezuelan migrant, and we also have a case of another Venezuelan migrant who was tortured during the state of emergency and the Declaration of armed conflict in the prison of Guayaqil.
So the organic with the reform to the organic law on human mobility from with the reforms from 2025, it would seem that there is a different overview where procedural safeguards are being weakened in the area of migration.
We'd like to know if that is the case or what efforts are in fact being undertaken in this area.
There are also cases of expedited deportations where they may be done based on legislation, but visas are being immediately revoked.
Information is not being given to the defense and due process is being hindered according to information that we've received on some cases that have been documented.
It would seem, as I say, to indicate a weakening of the safeguards.
There was a case of the Cuban journalist whose visa was revoked, the Labarobernt case, as well as the Spanish journalist who was also deported.
There have been collective deportations of Colombians in 2025 and the mass transfer of detainees from Ecuadorian prisons to Rumcha.
With no individual assessment of cases and with no consultation with Colombia.
There's also the case of an Iranian citizen in March 2026 and the Pandora operation from March 2026, where there was a reference to 144 migrants who were subjected to migrate administrative proceedings with high levels of discretionality.
The shortcomings there is only a 24 hour period where an interview can take place prior to deportation under these proceedings.
It's very difficult to ensure the right of access to justice.
I'd like you to explain how you are ensuring how you're carrying out those express deportations and whether or not the presumption of innocence is being violated and the right that people who are people have to be heard if they're suspected of having committed a crime.
There's also a reform to the law of public integrity.
Loy, right.
There has been the case there's also the case of deportation in case of internal armed conflict.
There are a few other terms that I would query as well, perhaps in a second round.
One more doubt that I have from the State party's report is as follows.
I'm quite struck in paragraphs 101, 106, and 107 of the state party's report.
I giving the request for information on various issues, it says, No information was received from the competent institution.
Is that really the case? Because if so, a national authority if information is requested to be provided to the UN human rights Committees, can a national entity refuse to provide information, the national authority not be obliged to provide that information, particularly given that it's going to the Human Rights Committee.
Now, given the time, I'll leave it there.
There are very many issues that have been touched upon.
I'm delighted that the delegation here with us and I look forward to your answers.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Edgar, for your questions and comments.
Now, I open the floor for other committee members for their questions and comments.
Madam Sabrinaaga, you have the floor.
Monsieur President.
Thank you, Chair.
I would like to welcome the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility, as well as the members of the distinguished delegation.
I would also like to congratulate you on the submission of your fourth periodic report and for your participation in this dialogue.
My comments and questions will cover the protection of migrant children.
As you mentioned, Vice Minister, during your introductory remarks, the best interests of the child is the of the protection of migrant children, and it is closely connected, obviously, to other rights and principles.
So it is with that in mind that I would like to point out.
And this reminds us of Joint General recommendation three of the committee for the protection of all migrant workers and members of the family and number 22 of the Committee of the Rights of the Child on General Principles on the right of the child in the context of migration in the context of international migration, as well as Joint General Comment four For our committee and number 23 for the Committee of the Rights of the Child, on states obligations for the protection of children in the context of international migration in countries of origin, transit, destination, and return.
The general observations recall that all children, whatever their migration status might be or that of their parents, must benefit without discrimination from all the rights enshrined by the relevant international conventions.
Specifically, it says that the best interests of the child must constitute a key consideration in any decision affecting children, whether they be on the move or whatever their migration status could be, and that this assessment should be done on an individual systematic and well documented fashion.
Having said that, the committee would like to know how the competent authorities De and assess what the best interests of the child is in asylum procedures, cases of international protection, of family reunification, regularization, and return, specifically for unaccompanied children or children who have been separated from their families.
The general observations also say that the detention of children on grounds related to migration is not in line with the best interests of the child and that states must find alternative answers based on family unification and community reintegration.
The committee would like to know what specific measure has been taken in order to ensure that no children is deprived of the liberty due to their migration status or that of their parents, and what alternatives have been considered to that end.
The committee would also like to have information on the mechanisms that have been established to guarantee all children on human mobility access to these services.
I'm thinking about access to education, to health services, social protection, to justice, to birth registry, I'm thinking about this operationally speaking because in the reports, you gave pride of place to the legal framework for the protection and access of migrant children to these various services.
Still, considering the general observations that highlight the importance of family unification and cross border cooperation and also the search for long lasting solutions that consider the children's rights, our committee would like to know what measures have been adopted in order to step up the pace of reification procedures, to improve cooperation with neighboring states, and to find long lasting solutions for migrant children, refugee children, and others, especially those that come from the Bivarian Republic of Venezuela.
The committee also expresses its concern over the lack of information on mechanisms that systematically identify migrant children who are victims of or who witness armed conflict, who are affected by armed conflict and forced recruitment, and oftentimes the use of children by armed groups before their arrival on the territory of the state party.
And so, could the delegation please inform us of the current procedures used in points of entry and welcoming centers in order to identify what children were likely to be recruited, used, or affected by armed conflict or organized crime? And what specialized training is afforded to law enforcement officials and officials entrusted with identifying these children? Thank you.
I'll stop here.
Thank you, Sabrina.
Mr.
Baba, you have the floor.
Thank you, Chair.
I would also like to commend the delegation of Ecuador and to thank them for being here for this constructive dialogue with us.
As my colleagues have said already, the point of this dialogue is to assist the state party to ensure the proper implementation of the convention.
I would also like to congratulate the Vice Minister thank him for leading this delegation and for his introductory remarks.
I would also like to commend through you all the members of your delegation.
For recently having ratified two significant conventions, the ILO, one on domestic workers and 190 on violence and harassment in the workplace and the convention on one of the conventions on workers.
I also have additional concerns I have questions by some of the conventions that were ratified by Ecuador.
It is interesting.
That are having some stumbling blocks on your path to implementation.
One is 87 and 98 on the Freedom of Association and trade union freedom.
Ecuador has adopted relevant instruments for the implementation of this decree 730 of 2023 on combating discrimination and 2025 Protocol 102 on trade union freedom and freedom of assembly.
And that there are, however, some gaps and difficulties in registering with trade unions.
There's also issues from protecting trade union leaders from discrimination in spite of the existence of these decrees.
These are all real concerns.
Convention 103 on the Protection of motherhood is a relevant convention.
And maternity leave for women is an important question because during maternity leave, women do not benefit from all services unless they have made the proper payments ahead of time, which are additionally actually supplementary fees.
There's a trend for the state to step in with subsidies or Social Security agencies to allow women on maternity leave to benefit from the entirety of their treatments.
The current trend is moving towards a hybrid system where state and employers contribute to the Social Security purse and allowing women on maternity leave to benefit from services they need.
So these are my concerns for the first question.
And so based on that, I wanted to know what measures is the state party taking in order to ensure that trade unions can freely register without any discrimination that migrant workers can join them and be members of the board of directors.
Okay.
How the state supports Social Security for women who would be in need of services during their maternity leave.
That was the first question.
The second question relates to ratification.
Does the state plan on ratifying the Convention 155 on security at work, Convention 187 on the Framework for Health at the Workplace, Protocol 29 on labor, Convention 143 on migration, Protocol 81 and 155.
On the labor inspection, health, and security in the workplace.
Lastly, Cana State Party give us an idea of the number of labor inspections done in the country? Do these labor inspections cover all the territory and do they have the necessary means to guarantee their independence and impartiality? These concludes my questions.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
Babaka.
Mr.
Hamad Fresri, you have the floor.
Many thanks, Mr.
Chair.
I also join my colleagues in extending very warm welcome to the Ecuadorian delegation.
It's a pleasure to have you here and thank you for having this dialogue with us.
This is a dialogue.
It's not an interrogation session and we appreciate very much a frank exchange of discussions and thoughts and ideas and concerns as well.
I usually raise this point pretty much every time I attend dialogues with states, which is that The convention lays out a number of commitments, obligations for states and most of the time, these commitments, obligations also require capacities on the ground, capacities in the state administration, but also in society and so forth.
One question and point that I usually raise is that what kind of challenges do you face in complying with the convention? What new circumstances on the ground materialize? And what can you tell us a little bit about your experience with complying with the convention, as well as also engaging with us in the committee.
This kind of feedback to us is very much appreciated because we would like to know and learn and inform in what ways we can help states.
And another reason why I mentioned why I started with explaining this nature of the dialogue where we exchange ideas and concerns is that We like very much to find out ways that we can collaborate and ways that we can support you in your working compliate convention.
In that sense, it's very much appreciated, any comments you have about challenges that you face, capacities that you need, and ideas that you may have about working with us.
So that is one.
Secondly, actually, most of the time when it comes to compliance with the convention, state authorities have their part in ensuring compliance, but also, first and foremost, compliance also is ensured by activities of the business sector, the private sector more broadly.
Pretty much overwhelming majority of migrant workers work in the private sector, very few work in the public sector, and so the private sector bears a lot of responsibility in ensuring that migrant workers are treated fairly.
And so, one question that sometimes comes up in this context is to see in what ways the government works with the private sector to ensure that the rights of migrant workers are respected.
Are there particular mechanisms or platforms, processes that the government uses, and if not, you know, what do you think about that, you know, any particular plans or ideas that you have on this issue of government business cooperation to ensure that migrant workers rights are being met by business practices.
That's all I have for a moment.
Thank you again.
I very much look forward to these two days of dialoguing with you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So Maria.
President Thank you, Chair.
I would also like to congratulate the delegation of Ecuador.
Thank them for coming all the way here to Pale Wilson for this interactive dialogue.
I cannot call myself an expert on Latin America.
I have read about the continent and I know what the press says about the continent.
I certainly don't know as much as my colleagues on the other side of the room, which is right my questions will be general, but I think that they are still relevant questions as they regard your obligations under the treaty.
Recently, we learned from the media of the expulsion following a decision of US authorities of migrants, some of whom ended up in countries of which they were not nationals.
Did you have any Ecuadorian nationals who ended up elsewhere in another third party state? If so, what did your government do in order to assist them and perhaps find ways of having them return to the country? And what I have learned from hearing several statements is that you're also a country of origin of migration.
So are there any provisions taken in order to facilitate the transfer of resources? Because some people go abroad to work for a better living.
So domestically in the country, have you made any provisions in order to facilitate the return and resettlement of those that want to come back? And possibilities for them to invest the money that they have saved up.
I also would like to know if your country is an active participant in regional human rights mechanisms, such as the Inter American Human Rights Commission and the Inter American Court of Human Rights.
I would also like to know if you have a national Human Rights institution, and if so, what is its status? Thank you, Chair.
That concludes my questions for the delegation.
Maria, miss Tang Sade, you have the floor.
Thank you, Chair.
First of all, I also want to welcome distinguished delegation from Ecuador.
I hope that during our dialogue, we will improve the situation with migrant workers, their families from Ecuador and discuss the possibility of solving the problems which we have.
For better understanding the situation, the possibilities of government provide support and services for migrant workers from Ecuador, I would to have more exact information about the consular points of Ecuador abroad in the countries where they have the biggest number of Ecuadorian immigrant workers flow and to understanding how they can provide the services for Ecuadorians abroad.
It will be very useful if we can provide us with the number of Ecuadorian immigrant workers are members of their family who participate in election of government structures of Ecuadorian In general, can they have the possibility to vote per person in Ecuador if they are abroad? For example, if they can at least some member, how many of them participate in these elections? Thank you.
Thank you, Tag Sade.
Before we close this round of questions, I just have one comment or rather inquiry with arising out of a comment You Excellency made.
You came up with a very interesting idea that your country is implementing digitized map of trafficking, you mentioned.
Now, I found it very interesting and my question will be to expand on that for two reasons.
One, it could be a very interesting example for other countries to follow if it is successful model.
And more details as to what do you mean by that digitized map of trafficking and what are the safeguards you have in that? Because if that digitized map goes to the hands of traffickers, then they know what to do.
How are you having firewalls in that? Who is using that? What is the purpose? How does that help to prevent trafficking? While it is a very interesting idea, it requires some clarifications as to what it is all about, especially suddenly that came to my mind was that will end up in the hands of traffickers who can then violate very efficiently whatever that government is trying.
So that's a question, if it's a successful effort model, there will be other countries who may want to use that as a tool to control trafficking very effectively and very efficiently across the system so that various agencies involved in that online on it so that you can prevent really trafficking, at some point, please explain that.
Now, I think we have had a good round of questions.
Um, and now what we propose is, Excellency, we will have about 20:15, 20 minute break for you, during which time you and your delegations can organize responses to the questions.
I'm sure some questions you can respond today, other questions we can hear tomorrow.
No hurry.
We have another full session.
And if we have time after your presentation, after you come back from the break, there may be other questions, so we'll continue.
It was supposed to be a conversatory, we will have this dialogue in a manner so that we both benefit.
I now suspend the meeting for 20 minutes and you have a room number 1016 Secretariat will show you is reserved for your delegation, and then we will see you in about 20 minutes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
There's so many questions to be answered your content.
Thank you very much.
I That Excellency, Pak Ru, welcome back.
I would now offer the floor to you for your responses and comments.
Of course, we recognize that some issues raised may require further consultations on your side, including with the Capitol, so we can discuss that tomorrow afternoon those issues, and I give the floor to your comments.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chair.
And thank you to all members for your attention to this dialogue.
As was mentioned, we are going to try to answer not all but many of the questions.
Okay.
And those that cannot be answered this afternoon orally, we will attempt to answer in greater detail tomorrow afternoon.
So let's begin speaking about remittances.
A question that there was about the 7 billion 2026 and what has the government done through its policies on remittances.
Consular offices in the United States have been reinforced with a greater number of staff members trained and available to address any type of requests or vulnerability related issues that if needed, the government through the policy on human mobility means that there has been a reduction in prevention of risky migration.
As I mentioned, the Ectorian abroad and returned migrants Before, because return migrants is not a new topic.
It's not that something came for the first time last year or two years ago.
It's been at least a decade.
But now it's better known perhaps because of online media, social networks, or how easy it is to have a quick response.
What happens to these people that are abroad and they go to the consular office.
Well, we have training workshops for them.
And provide different assistance to address vulnerabilities.
There can be visits as well for persons deprived of liberty.
Preferential care is afforded and for deported persons, as I said earlier, the state through the World Food Program, gives each deported person a card charged with $40.
This didn't exist before.
It started last year as part of a public policy.
And though $40 may not seem like much, they do allow the returned person to buy a phone card, to place a call, or to buy a bus ticket, which would take them back home to their hometown.
That wasn't possible before.
Now, that means also that when they return, there are various national institutions such as the civil registry who can provide identification in case they do not have any documents with them.
There's an Office of the National Registry at the airport.
There's also psychological and social and health support.
There are also representatives of the Ministry of Health there at the airport, the point of first entry.
Some international organizations such as the IOM is present, and the UNHCR is as well, who can provide assistance if so required.
The Ministry of the Interior Also, there are many public policies involving different state institutions who did not participate before whenever an Ecuadorian national returned to the country, and now they are there, they are present, and they participate.
We have a database with employment offers for all these people coming from abroad, for the deported nationals.
This job database is going to be rolled out this year, and it should be up and running by the end of this year and next year.
This is part of a public policy aimed at inclusion, which was a concern you had.
We also spoke about international protection and the inclusion of the Ecuadorian population abroad, international security cooperation.
And addressing some of the questions you had with agreements with third parties, which was mentioned this afternoon, since it was implemented to now, we have only had ten flights with 96 people coming from countries such as Venezuela, Cuba, Honduras.
The agreement only allows for Spanish speaking people hailing from the continent who have requested refugee status.
And this request is considered and analyzed once they arrive at the country.
When the people come into our country, they have already have an asylum request.
They have undergone a medical exam.
The criminal record is reviewed and Ecuador can, if it so deems appropriate, deny entry to someone who has come in through any of these ten flights since the project was implemented.
On the protocols and the consular network, the state has moved forward with the digitization projects in the 68 consular offices that we have across the world.
We have the web service from May 2024 and so far it has been used for 1,067,000 people.
We also have institutional chat system which addresses the overflow from phone calls.
And by May 11th, over 1,300,000 messages were sent and received.
This is from May 2024.
We also have the Visa online Visa Management simplified platform by May 11th, 102,000 regular visas were granted in 2,297 diplomatic visas.
And this is from July 2024.
We have the legal electronic Aposteo system, 1,122,554 public records have received an apostee since July 2024.
Now, what does this all mean? It means that as part of a public policy of the current government by digitizing our services, We are allowing our consular officers to have a lot more time to address the needs of the Ecuadorians that go in person to the consular offices due to vulnerability or human mobility related issues.
So by digitizing our services, we are freeing up a lot of time for our consular staff so that they can devote their energy to other consular services of great importance.
And as part of the contingency plan to receive migrants as part of the contingency plan to receive migrant nationals after the US tightening policies.
The government of Ecuador, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs drafted a contingency plan aimed at providing assistance and consular protection to our fellow nationals within the limits established in US and Ecuador regulations as well as an international law.
The contingency plan was strengthened by the emergency decree and through the Ministerial Agreement 15 of February 17th, 2025, which enables the Foreign Affairs Office and specifically the embassy and consular offices of Ecuador and the United States to take all necessary measures to guarantee the rights of the Ecuadorian community in that country.
In addition, the State of Ecuador, through the circular migration program developed by the Foreign Affairs Ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor oversees the labor conditions of Ecuadorians that participate in the program from its early stages, which include the application and the interviews.
During these stages, those applying for the job should have as much information as possible regarding the details of the contract, the labor conditions, labor rights, job security, housing, and logistics of their trip, thereby ensuring that they have clear, timely, and sufficient information in order to take a well informed decision.
And once they have been chosen and as a required prerequisite for the visa, the workers must sign on to the previously established contracts, which must clearly outline the conditions of the employment that have been agreed to.
In the case of the circular migration programs with Spain, which are the ones that have been developed the most so far, the labor conditions are governed by the provisions of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and migration, which sets out the general guidelines for hiring foreign workers who do not reside in Spanish territory.
This rule, this law has the minimum requirements for the job offers.
It also has guarantees for the employees such as dignified housing, organization, and partial or total paying of their trip full respect for contractual obligations and the right to receive all relevant information in a language that they can fully understand.
Once the workers arrive at the country of destination, the diplomatic offices of Ecuador follow up on them and provide timely information and pay periodic visits to ensure their well being.
And on this and answering one of the questions we heard a moment ago about what is being done for migration.
Well, this public policy, as I just read.
Um is a public policy that existed already in 2021.
However, the current administration since November 2023 has given it extra strength with the Directive of the Circular migration and the Office of Foreign Affairs.
As seen before, migration, and I think our colleague, one of the experts, asked this about high risk migration.
Well, with this I have just talked about, the Ecuadorians no longer need to incur debt.
They are afforded housing.
They are given employment and a visa.
So we try to change the way in which this happens.
The right to migrate is not denied, and it is another way of providing an opportunity to someone who wishes to go abroad.
This means that it's not only beneficial to the person traveling, oftentimes they come from a rural community.
Oftentimes, they haven't even left their hometown, and they are for the first time traveling across oceans from one continent to another.
This, however, has a positive impact for those who are seeking the labor and for those who are providing the labor and and then they can come back home and use the knowledge that they learned abroad.
For the case with Spain, they can go to Spain and then come back for four years in a row.
We're talking about a different type of migration.
We're not banning migration, but we're allowing it to take place in a safe, orderly and regular way.
Regarding the organic law on human mobility and cases on migrants, the state party can say that in keeping with Article 424, And in the Constitution, it recognizes the supremacy of international human rights treaties that have been ratified and how they prevail over national documents.
The Ecuadorian legal system operates under constitutional guidelines that ensure the full validity of the convention.
The by applying it, the judges are compelled to use constitutional standards and the international human rights instruments, whichever is most favorable to individuals.
And the rights enshrined in the Constitution, as well as those found in international human rights instruments, including the Constitution are enforceable right away.
There can be no reason for violating the rights.
This guarantees effective legal guarantees for all migrants.
The state of Ecuador through the Office of Foreign Affairs provides comprehensive legal assistance, social assistance, migration assistance services to migrant workers and their families abroad.
Having a model geared towards safe orderly and regular migration.
The Consular Network provides support and ongoing monitoring of the Ecuadorian migrant population on legal processes in coordination with NGOs, public entities, various municipalities and professional networks pro bono.
Consul offices provide advisor on social welfare, on having an equivalent for the title on social services and others.
And these actions benefited 17,000 some people in 2024 and 46,113 in 2025.
Been in what goes of 2026, 135 different workshops on advice have been organized.
We all have further efforts for working holiday and circular migration, which ensure safe orderly migration between 2023 and March 2026, 10,525 job vacancies were filled.
Consular support also includes community integration efforts which try to preserve the cultural identity to improve social cohesion, and these events improve community participation and the sense of belonging for Ecuadorians abroad.
We held 571 community events in 2024, 1011 2025 and 2083 between January and March 2026.
Also, training was provided to improve entrepreneurship and business management for 1,992 people in 2024 and 6,527 in 2025.
So far in 2026, it has been for 49 such events.
Overall, these initiatives show a unified consular services system, and sustained progress in the socioeconomic and cultural integration of the Ecuadorian migrant population.
Regarding legal assistance foreign nationals, the ombudsman's office provides free legal assistance to vulnerable individuals in many areas with a differentiated approach on human mobility.
It has national coverage and includes mobile units and online services.
So far in 2026, 130,102 users benefited from the services.
92,000 I legal sponsorships, which is the most required service we offer.
The countries of origin were Venezuela, Colombia, Peru in that order.
However, 18,652 people benefited from undefined countries and other countries.
3,000 some were from people coming from China, Equatorial, Guinea, Vietnam, Iran, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and others.
Overall, on non criminal matters, that was 55.07%.
This was the area in which people on the move asked for the most assistance.
For children and adolescents, 10,126 requests.
There was a significant increase in request for assistance over the years going from 4,800 in 2021 to 15,097 in 2025.
Regarding the gender of the user, men consistently asked for assistance more, 11,037 2021, 14,999 in 2025 and women went from 8,243 in 2021 to 13,155 in 2025.
And we also note that the adult population represented the greatest number of those asking for assistance, 106,079 cases overall.
We also note a progressive increase in assistance provided by children and adolescents going from 323 requests for assistance in 2021 to 856 in 2025.
And lastly, The request in Pachina 36,204 in Guas 13,660 in border Provinces of Lavadora 12,794, Cache 12,000 some, and LaCache 13,845.
Assistance for Ecuadorians abroad, addressing the increase of the immigration.
The Oombudsman's Office of Ecuador implemented the online program called Justice away from home, aimed at providing legal assistance and free legal representation.
This initiative was extended to include people of other nationalities who need legal services in Ecuador, becoming a system providing access to justice without territorial barriers.
Between September and December 2024, there were a total of 14 such assistance.
In 2025, we counted 99 requests for assistance and 94 of them were legal assistance and guidance and 94%, and then five were on legal sponsorship.
That means that mostly people were asking for assistance on initial guidance and services.
But also, we noted that during the first quarter of 2026, there were 55 requests for assistance, 54 of them were advisory and one was legal representation.
Between September 2024 and March 2025, we have had 168 requests for assistance which shows that this project is an effective tool to provide assistance for people on the move.
Regarding geographic distribution, most of the requests came from 29 countries.
The main countries were the United States, 37 cases, Spain, 26, Venezuela, 14, Peru, 13 cases.
As for the subject matter, we see that most of them related to family matters, children, and adolescence, 56 cases for this area, followed by criminal affairs, 35 cases and civil affairs, 22 cases.
Lastly, regarding the nationality of the users, 131 were Ecuadorians, Was 37 were nationals of other countries, showing that the service has broadened its scope in providing universal access to justice, the protection of the rights of migrant children.
The State Party, in keeping with Article 424, recognizes the supremacy of international human rights treaties that have been ratified by the country and how they are of direct applicability, the right to identity, nationality, and health of migrant workers is another important pillar of our constitutional jurisprudence, Ruling number 13 17 IN slash 24, which led to the constitutionality of the Organic law on human mobility cited Articles 29 28 of the Convention.
Article 29 guarantees the right of children to have a name, birth, registry, and nationality, whereas Article 28, for its part, guarantees the right to receive urgent medical assistance without it being denied on the grounds of migration regularization.
Sentence 33-13 JP slash 20 on due process, and revoking nationality also quoted Article 29.
In addition to Article 16 of the Convention, which for its part recognizes the right to freedom and personal integrity of migrant workers.
The transcendental sentence 21 85 slash 19 JP and Annet 21 on the nationality of migrants foreigners, addressed Article 29 of the convention, the right to name registration and nationality in Article 28, medical care.
Linking its compliance to eradicating practical obstacles such as the fear of deportation, which prevents people from registering in the civil registry.
In addition, the ruling refers to the recommendation of the committee, strengthening the implementation of the best interests of the child.
Likewise, ruling 1497-20 JP slash 21 protects the right to education of a migrant girl, combating indirect discrimination by requiring reasonable requisites and promoting the principle of equal treatment of Article 7, of indirect applicability through the principle of non discrimination.
And lastly, in the context of a special protection afforded to children and adolescents who are unaccompanied, Ruling 212 slash 20 slash EP slash 24, laid out the obligations of the state of transit for their entry and protection, citing foundationally, Article 10 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Which is read in light of the principles of the ruling 983 slash 18 slash JP slash 21 on legal sponsorship and the right of non refument though it mentions the Constitution and its Article 41, as well as the concept of use cogs, and it applies the principles that underpin Article 18 of due process and others by protecting migrant workers and refugees from refument to countries where their life or personal integrity might be at risk.
These precedents show increasing use of the convention to improve the protection of the population on the move of Ecuador.
Let me turn now to education without ID documents or academic background or case files.
The Ministry of Education seeks to ensure the right to access inclusion, constant continuity of education, particularly for those in vulnerable situations such as those in a case of human mobility.
This is done by strengthening the general regulations and rules, the Organic Law on intercultural education, its regulations and the creations of specific norms, such as the Ministerial Agreement Mini Duc 2026 001 A, which governs administrative and pedagogical procedures for access to the national education system through the process that implements actions to promote comprehensive care and support for socio educational inclusion through socioemotional support, for teachers in the classroom, as well as psychosocial support.
This is covered by the Department of Student Advisors, and this is done under a management model with areas of focus on advice, promotion, prevention, and to ensure that the process is ongoing, There are various programs implemented such as Safe Educational communities, and that project seeks to ensure comprehensive education for children, adolescents and their families.
There's educating in the family.
That's another program that we have to promote shared participation of parents.
We also have national plans to eradicate violence and to prevent psychosocial risk and to prevent violence as well as child labor.
We also have provided training to almost over 48,000 professionals in the educational level across the country.
We have sought to prevent xenophobia with courses that include modules on raising awareness, education free of violence, restoration.
There's another one called contact, listening, acting, and education in values and rights, as well as managing teams for internal collaboration and participation being a right in education.
We've also provided psychosocial support for teachers, and for professionals in the student advice departments, there have been 2127 users registered.
Similarly, we have developed action plans with UNHCR methodology, toolboxes, allies for a possible world in nine ones, 140 districts, and 1708 priority schools.
We've had an impact on over 4 million students, 4,322,138 individual students through to April 2025.
These actions have gone hand in hand with specific programs and protocols such as our National Plan on coexistence, the inter ministerial Project to prevent risk immigration, and guidance for coexistence to prevent and address discrimination and racism in the national education system.
When it comes to validating studies, Article 175 of the regulation of the Law on education and the ministerial Agreement from Mine Duc 202-40-0087 A from the 18th of December 2024, these prioritize verification of documentation, through digital mechanisms to recognize studies that have been conducted and harmonizing degree qualifications, facilitating their incorporation into the national education system.
Now we turn now to comprehensive care for boys, girls and adolescents, as well as psychosocial, socio emotional support and pedagogical levels.
And we give some data on access of children adolescents from other nationalities.
2021-2022, it was 87,365.
Between 2022, 2023, it was 80,074.
2023-2024, it was 75,229.
2024-2025, at 65,201.
2025-26, it was 59,137 children adolescents from other nationalities throughout the education system.
On labor, the constitution of our country recognizes particular protection for Ecuadorians on the move and establishes that the state shall develop actions to ensure their rights and to facilitate their return and social reintegration and economic reintegration.
Similarly, the Organic Law on human mobility recognizes returned Ecuadorians as a particular group for priority attention and ensures their socio and economic inclusion.
However, Ecuadorian legislation does not cover a particular general validation of inputs that have been undertaken abroad or studies undertaken abroad.
There's a validation formally In this context, the state itself recognizes as one of the benefits for return migrants access to a retirement pension and mechanisms of economic and social inclusion.
Therefore, from a legal perspective, we can conclude that the possibility of recognizing contribution periods abroad depends on international agreements on Social Security that are relevant between Ecuador and the country where the contributions were made.
Returned migrant may request recognition of their temporary rights in line with procedures established in those agreements and the Ecuadorian Institution for Social Security.
Within the Cositution on legal framework in Ecuador, we've adopted various measures to ensure equal treatment and labor protection for migrants.
These include the principle of equality and non discrimination.
Constitution recognizes equal rights between nationals and foreign nationals as well, it prohibits any form of discrimination the Constitution recognizes equality of rights between nationals and foreigners.
This was developed by our Organic Law on human mobility, which guarantees the exercise of rights in equal conditions for those in situation of human mobility.
Let me turn now to B, right to social and economic inclusion of returned migrants.
The Organic Law on human mobility expressly recognizes the right of returned Ecuadorians to inclusion social inclusion and economic inclusion.
The state is obliged to implement affirmative action measures to facilitate their reintegration in the country.
The measures implemented would include harmonization, Validation and recognition of studies conducted abroad, harmonization and certification for labor skills that have been acquired outside of the country, access to training programs and empowerment, access to the national financial system, programs of labor inclusion, and productive programs for returned persons.
The Ministry of Labor issued instructions for foreign migrant workers.
The aim is that the labor rights of those working in Ecuador shall be verified, and labor inspection mechanisms shall be strengthened.
This instrument obliges public and private employers to register the migrant workers and permits the labor authorities to conduct checks on wages, hours worked, and other labor rights, the Ministry of Labor to verify that there have not been violations of the rights of workers, implement periodic labor inspections through the labor inspectors, and they follow a procedure that is governed by the ministerial Agreement number MDT 2023 140.
That governs the oversight and monitoring of the employer's obligations and the inspection procedures.
It also complies with the regulatory role in terms of providing training on labor rights and obligations with a view to raising awareness of the parties and to ensuring normative oversight through data collection by the inspectors.
Between between 2020 and April 2026, 8,293 specialized inspections were conducted on health and safety in the workplace and 83,544 labor inspections at the national level.
The strengthen protection mechanisms of the rights of workers, and in this context, from 2023 to April 2026, 8,544 labor inspections were conducted according to the following details.
In 2020, there were 10,420 21.
12,789.
In 2022, there were 9,996.
In 2023, there were 13,871.
In 2024, there were 14,530.
In 2025, there were 7,309 and between January and April 2026, there were 4,649 labor inspections.
In addition, to respond to some of the other questions put on voting abroad, voting abroad is not compulsory, it's optional.
However, in collaboration with the National Electoral Council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility, This has been coordinated so that the ballot papers and so on be transferred in a timely manner so that those who are abroad the elections can take place the same day as people can vote abroad at the same day as those who vote in Ecuador.
The members of the board tend to be voluntary, they're part of the Ecuadorian migrant community and they receive some per diem for their participation the day of the elections.
If you just give me a few seconds, I can give you the data.
For over 4,000 451,000, that's the number of those people who are registered to vote abroad.
This is on the possibility of voting abroad.
Another figure that I want to share with you The number of deportees 2019-2026.
In 2023, it reached 18,449 Ecuadorians deported.
In 2024, it was 13,681.
In 2025, 9,434 and through to April 2026, we have 4,395, which means that the number of deportees from 2023, which is when the peak was over almost 20,000 citizens deported.
That has been falling significantly since then.
I also wanted to share data on irregular migration.
Ecuadorians found by the Border Patrol of the United States with a cut off of the 25th of May 2026.
In 2023, we had 125,151 Ecuadorians.
In 2024, it was 89,731.
In 2025, it was 4,953 and three to April 2026, 1099.
Ecuadorians in an irregular situation in Mexico from the National Mexican Institute, cut off May 2026.
In 2023, we had 70,453.
In 2024, it was 110,000.
In 2025, 9,608 and just 171 between January and March 2026.
Ecuadorians in transit through the Darien Gap from the Panama Migration Significance Stats Institute in 2022, it was 29,356 in 2023, around 53,000 in 2024, 16,576 in 2025, 133, and in 2026, just 24.
This to answer the question regarding the public policies when it comes to migration that the government has been implementing to date.
Now, I think that That covers the questions that we're able to answer today.
We've noted down all of the other questions and we'll be able to continue answering them tomorrow afternoon with more information.
I think that on the stats that you'd asked us for as the First rapporteur, I hope that we have answered, if not all of them, then the majority of perhaps we've given you a better overview.
Of what's actually happening and the impact of the public policies implemented and the statistics, as the two rapporteurs rightly said, stats don't lie, the figures don't lie.
Of course, that doesn't cover everything, but with the digitization and the mobile units that we've implemented in the consular offices as well, but in the specific issues that affect Ecuador and the whole region in terms of migration, there are also sources from outside the country.
Hopefully we've given you a better picture.
As you said, you have a particular view, and it's necessary that Ecuador through its institutions, through her institutions, support that and that it provides periodic information to you so that you can also understand a different point of view as well.
Thank you very much.
For your time.
Your Excellency, I thank you for your energy and which is manifested by your commitment for presenting the responses by yourself without delegating it to your experts, if I may, this is the thing.
It's not only me.
I'm just the voice.
I have a great team here next to me and also in Ector the one that gets the credit.
Sorry for the interruption.
We will expect more responses, more comments tomorrow.
To other issues that has been raised.
We have little more time left.
I wonder whether the rapporteurs want to follow up.
So I will give the floor to Sherif to use the rest of the time productively so that we can make our dialogue more constructive tomorrow.
Thank you.
Sheriff, you have the floor.
Commissioner President.
Thank you very much chair.
I would echo your words in warmly thanking the Deputy Minister, not only for his energy, but also for the quality of the figures he's given us.
We'd have liked to see them in the report, but it's, you know, I'm not wedded to figures, but it is important to have them.
It's also interesting to hear your responses to this first round.
That's helped us definitely to get a better picture of the broad brushstrokes and the situation in your country, to measure the scope of the different, um, uh, programs implemented and to really assess and better understand the goals that you've set yourselves to ensure protection of the people on the move.
Now, I would have three or four brief questions.
We don't have an awful lot of time.
Firstly, is a little bit direct, if I may.
What happens to non Ecuadorian deportees that Ecuador has accepted and who have absolutely no links to Ecuador and sometimes don't even speak Spanish.
What happens to them? Coming from the US with the agreement that there's been.
I think you could be quick, Chair, do you need me to go quickly? I don't want to go into too much detail, but okay.
Secondly, second question is the vulnerability of migrant women Ecuador is a state party to all clear human rights treaties and that we should hail.
Moreover, it was correct me if I'm wrong, that you were the first country in Latin America to give the right to vote to women to have given the right to vote to women.
I think it was in 1929, I think you're the first country in Latin American to do that, unless not mistaken.
But despite the notable progress in the legal framework, migrant women continue to face problems and difficulties which are under seriously hinder the efforts made by your country.
Violence against women is the most serious of these problems.
You've mentioned it very briefly in passing, but judging by the information, the data, and the witnessing that we've heard violence against migrant women as defined and adopted in the UNGA Declaration in 1993 on elimination violence against women.
It's very difficult.
The report on the field V of the Board of UN Women in 2022, While recognizing that your government continues to demonstrate political will to bring about positive change, nonetheless, it states that women are constantly exposed to poverty to inequalities and multifaceted inequalities, the report highlights that three out of four women are unemployed.
Those who are in work are also victims of salary, wage discrimination, labor conditions, access to Social Security, and these are primary, this report stresses rural, indigenous, Afro Ecuadorian and migrant women and children and girls, and the displaced who have suffered from these forms of segregation.
Now there are figures in there, which I won't go to, but almost 90% of those are coming from Venezuela, 55% of them are women.
Most of these women aged 18-59.
They have problems, socioeconomic integration problems facing exacerbated risk, but they often don't have access to justice because they are often in an irregular situation.
Same as sexual violence is considered to be one of the main factors behind the high rates of violence.
You do have a high rate of teenage pregnancy in Ecuador, it would seem 63.6 thousand girls.
It makes you third in the region in terms of adolescent pregnancy.
The report also highlights that 137 adolescents 15-19 and five girls under 14 give birth every day, which is very high.
Similarly, you mentioned children very briefly.
I have two very brief questions on children.
I'm talking primarily about children coming back with their parents.
I don't know what you do to support children where their parents have been deported.
I talked about that earlier, all the measures that they bid in place, but also children.
You have another phenomenon that I can't go into in detail.
Perhaps we can come back to it tomorrow if you like.
You have a high number of women leaving their children in their country.
The children grow up without their children.
Since the agreement that you have put in place with Spain that you touched upon, what happens to these children? What do you do for these children living far from their mothers that is problematic? What measures have you taken? I don't need to go into detail now if you need me to talk to you tomorrow.
In the meantime, civil society is very active in a series of areas for children, for women, and others and there have been many projects launched to help them to guide, talk about women.
However, following the crisis that international cooperation is experiencing and civil society in Ecuador, like others, they're going through very difficult times, many resources that they previously had access to and you're I'm always using the conditional tense in French because I want you to correct my perception, to say, correct me if I'm wrong.
It would seem that because of the drastic fall in humanitarian aid and the exponential growth of needs, particularly with the return of those deported from the US, social organizations are really struggling to bridge the gap to help them to support them.
What is the place and role of NGOs in terms of raising awareness and training? How many of them are there in your country if you're working in these areas, working on migration? What were the resources allocated by the state to support them and to facilitate adequate conditions to help them work calmly? What is your state doing to help civil society continue to undertake their missions in safe conditions, and safe conditions and in good material conditions with enough resources allocated? I just wanted to thank our interpreters, which I didn't f this earlier.
I know I speak too quickly, but thank you very much.
Thank you, S.
I'll leave it there.
Mr.
Edgar, you have about three or 4 minutes.
Okay.
Go ahead, please.
I can.
Thank you, Chairman.
I just wanted to I don't have much time.
I just wanted to list the topics for you that I wanted answers on because I haven't heard from the first questions, the point about the organic law on human mobility, expedited deportations, the procedural weakening, the abuse and crimes against migrants and the fact that we haven't had information that you didn't receive information from the relevant authorities.
There was also xenophobia and racism in generic terms against the migrant population.
Then I wanted to hear about xenophobia and racism against Venezuelan women in particular.
Another question to be addressed tomorrow also relates to migrant domestic workers or female domestic workers or those working in homes and something that has been referred to international treaties and the Constitution and the direct application, the reference that the Vice Minister made, as well as data and collection of data, the statistical centralized system, the segregated data on migration and other issues related to that data and the efforts of cos a platform called C and their efforts and their recommendations and outcome of international recommendations.
There's also training on the convention.
Our convention, regardless of its applicability, which was flagged here in various cases.
There was also the question of articles 76 and 77 of our convention relating to individual communications on the one hand.
And what's done communications between states.
There's also the closure of border control points and the capacity of the NHRI and lastly, some questions on enforced disappearance, trafficking, birth registration, and refuge asylum seeking.
Thank you.
That's something.
Thank you.
Thank you, Edgar.
I thank Excellency Pak Ru, his expert team for making this presentation to enhance our constructive dialogue and to efficient rapporteurs and my colleagues for their comments, questions.
And we will continue with discussion on the periodic report of the state party tomorrow afternoon tomorrow afternoon, we will continue at 3:00 P.M.
Our constructive dialogue with the Republic of Ecuador.
And we expect the dialogue quality to improve as we go by tomorrow and a And then tomorrow morning at 10:00 A.M.
The committee will consider the second periodic report of Ghana.
Just to remind our colleagues.
Meeting is adjourned.
Have a good evening, sir.
Thank you, sir.