ECUADOR IMPLEMENTS TRAVEL DOC REQUIREMENTS FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 QUITO 001100 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: TWENTY YEARS TAGS: CVIS PREL PGOV ASEC CMGT KCRM KFRD KTIP EC CH, CO, PE SUBJECT: ECUADOR IMPLEMENTS TRAVEL DOC REQUIREMENTS FOR CHINESE REF: A. STATE 112021 ¶B. GUAYAQUIL 257 ¶C. QUITO 834 ¶D. QUITO 890 ¶E. QUITO 929 ¶F. QUITO 952 QUITO 00001100 001.2 OF 005 Classified By: Ambassador Heather M. Hodges for Reasons 1.4 (b&d) ¶1. (C) Summary. Mission Ecuador has coordinated a joint strategy with our Chinese counterparts for delivering demarches to the GOE on its visa policies, specifically the lack of control over "tourists", and working with Ecuadorian authorities to improve their controls (Ref A). Both the U.S. and Chinese Ambassadors and staff have met with GOE officials, requesting that the policy be reconsidered and that the Ecuadorian authorities improve their controls at port of entry, including authorizing and training immigration police to identify and deport intending immigrants. Due to those and other pressures, the GOE has privately stated that it will implement a travel document requirement for Chinese nationals effective December 1. Post will continue to press the GOE to broaden this decision to include other nationals, and will work with Chinese Embassy officials and Ecuadorian authorities to pursue human traffickers. (End Summary) A Coordinated Joint Demarche ¶2. (C) On October 22, Embassy officials from the consular and political sections and from DHS met with the Chinese DCM and four other Chinese Embassy officials. The Chinese DCM noted that his ambassador had met with President Correa but that he (Correa) was unwilling to change his policy on lifting visa requirements. The Chinese officials agreed that a joint effort at delivering demarches to the GOE would be more effective, including a possible joint demarche by the two ambassadors. In addition to demonstrating the negative effects of the policy, it was agreed that the demarche strategy would include encouraging the GOE to implement new QUITO 00001100 002.4 OF 005 procedures to prevent migrants from entering Ecuador. Specifically, this could include providing the immigration police the training to determine who is an intending immigrant and the authority to deport such migrants. ¶3. (C) The Ambassador has raised the visa policy issue with numerous GOE officials, including Foreign Minister Maria Isabel Salvador, VP Lenin Moreno, Minister of Coordination of Internal and External Security Gustavo Larrea, and Minister of Government and Police Fernando Bustamante (Refs C thru F). DHS ICE Attache has raised the issue with Prosecutor General Washington Pesantez, and the DHS ICE Attache together with PolCouns discussed the issue with the President's Legal Advisor. All have responded that the visa policy was the President's decision. ¶4. (SBU) Chinese Ambassador Runguo Cai has delivered demarches to GOE officials, including the Foreign Minister and Vice President. In an interview with El Universo newspaper on November 19, Ambassador Cai publicly requested that the GOE reinstate its visa policy for Chinese nationals. A number of recent press articles have highlighted the growing number of problems created by the GOE's removal of a tourist visa requirement for Chinese nationals, including human smuggling and trafficking. Resulting Change in GOE Policy ¶5. (C) The Chinese DCM in Quito informed the Embassy on November 21 that the GOE would reinstate its visa requirement for Chinese nationals, effective December 1. The Chinese DCM believed that this change in policy was unique to Chinese nationals. Although the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry has not issued a statement on the issue, GOE officials also indicated during the November 24 U.S.-Ecuador Bilateral Dialogue meeting in Quito that the GOE would reinstate a travel document requirement for Chinese nationals. The GOE noted that this problem was unique to Chinese migrants. WHA DAS Chris McMullen countered in the meeting that although the QUITO 00001100 003.2 OF 005 Chinese have come in greater numbers to Ecuador, the issue applies also to other foreign nationals who may become victims of human trafficking or take advantage of the no-visa environment for illicit activity or terrorism. According to the MFA, as of December 1, Chinese tourists wishing to travel to Ecuador would need to travel in groups using travel documents authorized by Chinese travel agencies that also have the approval of the Ecuadorian Consulate in China. However, the Chinese Acting Consul told PolOff on November 26 that the Chinese Embassy was still not clear on how exactly the new policy would work, and the GOE had still not advised the immigration police or airport officials of the GOE,s change in policy. Increased Migration and Trafficking ¶6. (C) Separately, the Minister of Coordination of Internal and External Security announced on November 24 that the GOE would implement a biometric system, to incorporate digital fingerprinting, for the entry of all foreigners on its northern and southern borders, effective in January, 2009. The system reportedly will also be implemented at the Quito and Guayaquil airports, although it is unclear when. The GOE initiated a pilot of this system on November 10 in Huaquillas, on the border with Peru, and on November 17 in Rumichaca, on the border with Colombia. However, head of the Migration Police at the Quito airport, Colonel Lenin Bolanos, told our DHS ICE Attache on November 28 that the fingerprinting system would only be used initially on foreign nationals that were being deported, due to limitations in equipment, trained personnel, etc. ¶7. (U) In the three months since the GOE,s implementation on June 20 of its policy of visa-free entry into Ecuador for all tourists, approximately 7,837 Chinese nationals have entered Ecuador, compared to the 2,875 who entered during the six months prior. The rate at which Chinese nationals have entered Ecuador since the visa waiver was 78 per day, compared to 13 per day in 2007, representing a 600% increase. QUITO 00001100 004.2 OF 005 Ecuador is the only country in the Western Hemisphere that allows the entry of Chinese without a visa. ¶8. (SBU) Chinese nationals typically travel on flights through Spain to arrive in Ecuador, both in Quito and Guayaquil. Entering and departing on Chinese passports, the Chinese migrants travel to Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, Haiti and Cuba via commercial air, including charter flights. There have been several cases of Chinese migrants traveling to the U.S. on Japanese or South Korean passports obtained illegally in Ecuador or in Central America. ¶9. (SBU) Ecuadorian authorities have encountered an increasing number of cases of human smuggling and trafficking, as well as corruption and use of false travel documents (Ref B). On November 15, the Ecuadorian Coast Guard boarded a fishing vessel with 45 Chinese migrants off the coast of Esmeraldas province. Ecuadorian authorities estimate that these Chinese migrants pay the traffickers as much as $70,000 for the whole travel and documentation package. Additional Joint Cooperation ¶10. (C) In the October 22 meeting with Chinese Embassy officials, the Chinese DCM offered to coordinate with the U.S. Embassy to help identify and locate smugglers and fraudulent document rings. The Chinese DCM noted that his Embassy occasionally receives information about what he referred to as the "Chinese, Ecuadorian or Peruvian mafia" involved in these illicit activities, but that their Embassy had no security personnel. Sharing information with the U.S. Embassy and our counterparts in the Ecuadorian police could lead to seizure of these smugglers. Comment ¶11. (C) It is not clear under the proposed policy change QUITO 00001100 005.2 OF 005 whether the Chinese tourist/traveler would simply present the travel document at the port of entry in Ecuador or whether the Ecuadorian Consulate would also provide information to immigration agents through an online check. It is also unclear how difficult it may be to falsify these documents, what the GOE will do to train its immigration officials, and how the GOC will assist airport officials in China. The conflicting information regarding use of the digital fingerprinting system indicates that this too may not be as initially effective as the GOE might hope. ¶12. (C) To follow-up, the Embassy will provide the MFA and National Secretariat of Migration information regarding the flow of foreign nationals into Ecuador to demonstrate that the problem of increased migration extends beyond just the Chinese. The Embassy will also meet again with Chinese Embassy officials to determine the effectiveness of the implementation of the GOE's policy and to coordinate future cooperation. HODGES