Colombian refugees in Ecuador brought `out of invisibility'

As millions fleeing civil strife come to Ecuador, the government is working to fast-track the asylum process for refugees.

As violence has been pushed south into the jungles near the border, more displaced Colombians have sought refuge in Ecuador, a country known to have open policies concerning asylum. Though the nation claims 22,000 registered refugees, the government and the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimate that there is a much larger ''invisible population'' of 135,000 people in need of international protection.

``This is not a process of migratory amnesty, it is for people who are already here in Ecuador and have rights. We are recognizing these rights.''

Concerns have been raised over whether the process is too speedy to be thorough, easing the requirements for asylum and opening the nation's borders to a flood of new migrants.

Morales insists this is not the case.