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From midnight on Monday, Venezuelan migrants will be able to enter Ecuador only with a humanitarian visa. Thousands of them have rushed these last days to the border to try to pass before the fateful hour, saturating the facilities.
With our correspondent in Quito , Eric Samson
On the Ecuadorian side of the Rumichaca border crossing in the north of the country, 18 wickets are waiting for travelers to present their passports. Sufficient in normal times, but not when thousands of migrants arrive.
To avoid chaos, the Ecuadorian authorities have distributed blue plastic bracelets with numbers to try to organize the queues that are growing longer. Because Venezuelan migrants have presented themselves massively, at a rate of about 5,000 people a day or more.
On Monday, the police announced that it would strengthen the control of 26 clandestine crossing points to prevent the entry of people who did not obtain the humanitarian visa requested by Quito. The authorities recommend to migrants who do not have the right to claim them at the Ecuadorian consulates in Caracas, Bogota or Lima.
At the border, however, information is not circulating or badly. While they have heard of the new visa requirement, many migrants do not know the details of the amnesty and regularization program that Quito will launch next October.
In particular, many are unaware that this two-year renewable visa scheme will only apply to those who entered Ecuador before 26 July.