The Government of Ecuador announced this Thursday that will require the presentation of criminal record certificates to foreigners arriving through Colombia's borders and Peru, while the emergency situation adopted after the wave of violent acts generated this week by organized crime lasts.
The Ministry of the Interior, in a statement, indicated that the country's immigration controls “will require foreign citizens who enter through the borders of Peru and Colombia to have a criminal record certificate from the country of origin or residence during the last five years, duly apostilled”.
(Also: How did Ecuador come to be in check due to criminal gangs?).
With this provision, the Ecuadorian Government seeks to “prevent the entry of individuals who constitute a threat or risk to public security,” the Interior Ministry stressed.
He clarified that the children or adolescents foreigners who arrive in Ecuador “accompanied by a family member, within the fourth degree of consanguinity or second degree of affinity, will be exempt from this requirement.”
(Also read: Noboa ratifies toughness against 'terrorists' after a criminal leader's request to surrender).
The Ministry of the Interior specified that the Undersecretariat of Immigration “must issue operational guidelines” that facilitate the “adequate compliance” of the provision at border crossings with Colombia and Peru.
The Ecuadorian government seeks to “prevent the entry of individuals who constitute a threat or risk to public safety.”
EFE/ Carlos Durán Araújo
This measure was adopted with the objective of “strengthening the security and preserving the stability of our nation,” the ministry added, and explained that the provision is based on Ministerial Agreement Number 007, adopted by the Ecuadorian Government “while the state of emergency and recognition of the internal armed conflict”.
Ecuador has been experiencing a violent week since last Monday with riots in several prisons and 178 prison officials detained, the burning of vehicles, the kidnapping and murder of police officers and even the raid by armed criminals on a television station last Tuesday in Guayaquil, which ended after a police operation that left one injured and 13 arrested.
(Be sure to read: Violence in Ecuador: 178 prison workers are held in riots).
The authorities attribute these events to the action of criminal gangs just when the Government of President Daniel Noboa was preparing to implement a plan to regain control of the prisons, many of them internally dominated by organized crime groups.
EFE
More news in EL TIEMPO
#Ecuador #require #criminal #records #foreigners #border #Colombia
