Following the agreement reached in Brasilia in July 2015, between the representatives of Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Haiti, on the fight against the smuggling of migrants in South America, María Landazuri, the Vice -Minister of human Mobility of Ecuador, chaired the first follow-up meeting ofthe implementation of cooperative measures designed to promote safer migration and enable Haitian citizens to move into the area safely and avoid becoming victims of trafficking networks.

At the meeting, it was stressed the positive impact of cooperative work between the responsible institutions of each Nation to prevent the trafficking of Haitian citizens in the region.

Ecuador implemented in August 2015 the Virtual tourism Registry System for this group, with the aim to control the entry of Haitian mobilized by trafficking networks. Before the application of the measure (15 January-August 2015) 13.848 Haitians entered the country. After the measure (16 August-December 2015) only 808 Haitians entered.

Brazil during the meeting briefed on the strengthening of its Embassy in Port-au-Prince in order to issue 2,000 visas per month, in coordination with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-15304-haiti-flash-iom-opens-a-brazil-humanitarian-visa-application-centre.html . To date, 38.446 humanitarian visas were granted to Haitian citizens by the Brazilian government, in addition to providing support for their social and economic integration in the venue.

In the measures taken by Brazil and Ecuador, are added the actions undertaken by Bolivia, Peru and the Haitian government, allowing the movement in the region of Haitian citizens in an orderly, in complete safety to prevent these people become victims of trafficking networks.

Delegations agree that the joint work and regional cooperation helped ensure the humanitarian protection and prevent the violation of human rights of Haitian citizens and has not ruled out the possibility of starting a new project in one of these countries.

SL/ HaitiLibre