The government of Ecuador announced this Tuesday (18) the temporary suspension of an agreement with China that mutually waives the visa requirement for holders of ordinary passports for the entry of citizens of the other country. The document will be required again on July 1st.
According to the newspaper El Universo, the government reported that the measure was taken due to an “abnormal increase in irregular migratory flows of citizens of Chinese nationality who arrive in Ecuador and do not leave within the allowed period [90 dias a partir da entrada no país]”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that in the last two years 66,189 Chinese arrived in the South American country and only 34,209 officially left.
These numbers indicate that many Chinese citizens have been taking advantage of the agreement with Ecuador to migrate illegally to the United States, “mainly through Darién,” the ministry said, citing the jungle between Colombia and Panama.
The commitment was signed in January 2015, when Rafael Correa was president, and came into force in August 2016.
According to information from CNN, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that the agreement with Ecuador “played a positive role in bilateral people-to-people exchanges and practical cooperation in various fields.”
Regarding the evidence of mass illegal Chinese immigration to the United States and the fact that the commitment to Ecuador is being distorted for this purpose, the spokesperson stated that China “firmly opposes” human trafficking and that its law enforcement agencies “vigorously suppress crimes” of this type.
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