Angelina Jolie visits Ecuador as UN envoy
In a photo provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie, second from right, meets with Plinio, right, in Providencia, Ecuador Sunday April 22, 2012. Plinio is growing beans as part of agricultural project supported by UNHCR to encourage self sufficiency and improve nutrition in the community. This community located on the banks of the San Miguel border is composed of 24 Afro-Colombian families, all of them refugees. This community settled there in 1994 but had never received the visit of any institution until 2008 when UNHCR reached them for the first time. Their isolation makes them extremely vulnerable to the Colombian conflict (selective assassinations, forced recruitment, etc.) and considerably limits their access to rights. Since 2008, all the members have been registered as refugees, their children born on the Ecuadorian soil granted with Ecuadorian IDs and thanks to the coordination with local institutions, the community now has a primary school hosting more than 50 children The UN refugee agency s new Special Envoy of High Commissioner Antonio Guterres, Ms. Angelina Jolie, is visiting Ecuador this weekend in her first field visit since being appointed to her new position this month. Ms. Jolie, who conducted more than 40 field visits over the last decade as UNHCR s Goodwill Ambassador, is on her third trip to Ecuador to assess the current situation for refugees from Colombia the largest refugee population in Latin America. Ecuador currently hosts some 56,000 refugees, 21,000 asylum-seekers and continues to receive 1,300 new applications for protection each month from people fleeing Colomb! ia s ong oing violence. Many live in the remote and poor northern areas of the country close to the Colombian border. ©UNHCR/JTanner/April 2012
Jolie has visited various countries over the past decade as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The agency said in a statement Monday that it was her first trip as special envoy since her appointment earlier this month.
The agency said Jolie was on her third trip to Ecuador to assess the situation of thousands of refugees who have fled violence in neighboring Colombia. She previously visited the country in 2002 and 2010.
During a two-day visit, Jolie met with impoverished Colombian refugees in northern Sucumbios province and talked with Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino.
"I really encourage the government to continue their tradition of assistance to vulnerable families in need," Jolie said, according to the U.N. agency's statement.
There are currently about 56,000 Colombian refugees living in Ecuador, plus thousands of others who are seeking asylum.
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