GOCR FEARS THAT LAX ECUADOR VISA POLICY IS FUELING

UNCLAS SAN JOSE 000925 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CEN, WHA/AND, WHA/PPC, EAP/CM AND CA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PTER ASEC CVIS KCRM KFRD EC KTIP CS SUBJECT: GOCR FEARS THAT LAX ECUADOR VISA POLICY IS FUELING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION REF: SAN JOSE 882 ¶1. (SBU) This is the unclassified version of San Jose 882, being transmitted at the request of the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center (HSTC). -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶2. (SBU) GOCR Immigration officials who traveled to Ecuador in October reported that approximately 10,000 Chinese had entered Ecuador since the GOE dropped its tourist visa requirements for all nationalities on June 20. Embassy contacts feared that these Chinese were heading for Costa Rica and for the United States and that many could fall victim to forced labor trafficking or human smuggling "coyotaje." Some of the Chinese had applied for Costa Rican permanent residency while in Beijing and then asked that their notification be sent to them in Ecuador, suggesting the beginning of an organized fraud pattern. Post learned that flights from Ecuador through Costa Rica (a TACA Airlines hub for flights headed north) had began to include a diverse mix of nationalities since June, including Eastern Europeans, Arabs, and South Americans. END SUMMARY. -------------- CHINESE: INCREASED NUMBERS; POSSIBLE FRAUD -------------- ¶3. (SBU) The GOCR General Directorate of Immigration (DGI) became concerned recently when officials noticed a pattern among non-related Chinese "family reunification" residency petitions. Approximately 10 to 15 cases surfaced, involving young males aged 17 to 20, in which the applicants filed petitions in Beijing to come to Costa Rica, but requested that status notifications be sent to Ecuador. One official offered as hypotheses that an organized fraud ring was smuggling or trafficking Chinese, or that such a ring was arranging valid residencies for Chinese but then using the documents for impostors waiting in Ecuador. Two DGI officials were dispatched to Quito in October to reinforce training for GOCR consuls and to meet with Ecuadorian and Chinese officials; the DGI shared its report with Post. The DGI halted the above-mentioned residency cases, and GOCR consuls in Beijing and Quito will take a closer look at Chinese petitions for evidence of fraud. ¶4. (SBU) According to the DGI report, a senior Ecuadorian Immigration official told the GOCR DGI that between June 20 and the October meeting, 10,748 Chinese had entered Ecuador and 4826 of those had departed, compared to 2007 statistics showing 4776 Chinese entries and 4417 departures. Even with those statistics, however, the DGI was told it was too early to determine the positive or negative effect from dropping the Ecuadorian visa requirement, though officials were aware that many of the Chinese were looking to the U.S. as their final destination. GOE officials explained to the DGI that the visa-less travel requirement was designed to increase tourism, investment and trade for Ecuador, as well as to "increase the free movement of people into and out of the country." ¶5. (SBU) Also according to the DGI report, in a separate meeting with a Chinese Embassy official in Ecuador, the DGI learned that the majority of Chinese who had entered since June 20 came from the poorest provinces, Fujian and Guadong, and the Chinese government was concerned that they would fall victim to trafficking and smuggling rings. Approximately one-third of those who entered Ecuador reportedly had departed legally. The remainder stayed in Ecuador or sought to go illegally to Brazil, Colombia, Peru or to their most desired destination - the United States. -------------- FLIGHTS FROM ECUADOR "COSMOPOLITAN" -------------- ¶6. (SBU) A senior DGI official told Post that that daily flights arriving to San Jose from Ecuador had recently become "very cosmopolitan." Before, these flights carried more "local" (Central American) clientele but now included many South Americans and Eastern Europeans, among others. San Jose is a hub for TACA Airlines' northbound flights. The DGI detected a pattern that these more "diverse" flights from Ecuador were generally transiting Costa Rica and headed to Guatemala or Belize - two countries with extremely porous borders with Mexico - as their final destination. -------------- OTHER NATIONALITIES USING ECUADOR AS BRIDGE? -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Ecuadorian Immigration officials told DGI officials that an unspecified number of Arabs were now arriving in Ecuador. Reportedly, Ecuadorian Immigration maintained that the Correa administration's decision to drop visa requirements came as a surprise to the Immigration department. GOCR consuls in Ecuador reported an increase in all types of visa applications since June 20. ¶8. (SBU) One senior DGI official expressed concern to Post about a potential influx of African migration to the region. Whereas before Brazilian Immigration was an obstacle even though there were direct flights from Africa, now Africans could transit Brazil and land in Ecuador. From there, they could migrate over land anywhere in Central, South, or North America. CIANCHETTE