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a joint press conference in the Ministry. Unfortunately, it was impossible to hold the meeting
with the Foreign Minister scheduled for the afternoon of 6 November for the purpose of further
discussions with the Special Rapporteur. At a meeting to which academic bodies in Quito were
invited, representatives were present from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences
(FLACSO), the Private Technical University of Loja and the Andean University. The Special
Rapporteur also held a working dinner with the Episcopal Conference’s Pastoral Office of
Human Mobility. She was able to meet Dr. Martín Insua Chang, the Minister of Labour and
Human Resources, and Dr. Ernesto Pazmiño, the Under-Secretary in the Ministry of Social
Welfare. A meeting held in the Ministry of the Interior and Police was attended by
Dr. Marcelo Merlo Jaramillo, the Minister of the Interior and Police, the Commandant General
of the National Police, the Director of the Aliens Office and the Director-General of Migration.
9.
On 7 November the Special Rapporteur visited the García Moreno prison in Quito and
the Pre-trial Detention Centre. On 8 November she held a working breakfast with
Hugo Moreno Romero, Chair of the International Affairs Commission of the Congress, and
representatives of the Commission on Women, Children and the Family. She also held a
meeting with Claudio Mueckay, the Ombudsman, which was attended by the Indigenous
People’s Ombudsman, the Director of the National Directorate for the Defence of the Rights of
Migrants in the office of the Ombudsman, the North America representative of the Ombudsman,
the Legal Adviser to the Ombudsman and the head of the office of public defender for the prison
system. She also met representatives of United Nations agencies operating in Ecuador, notably
UNDP, UNHCR, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Development Fund for
Women (UNIFEM).
10.
On 8 November a working lunch was held with Humberto Romero Montalván, Director
of the Aliens Office in the Ministry of the Interior and Police, who chairs the Consultative
Council on Migration. A meeting was held later with representatives of public bodies and
international agencies which jointly coordinate projects dealing with migrants and their families.
It was attended by Gabriel Alom, who handles consular matters in the Embassy of Spain,
representatives of the Netherlands Cooperation Service, IOM, CONAMU, the Office of the
Director for Protection of Minors in the Ministry of Social Welfare, the Office of the
Director-General for Migration and the National Institute of Children and the Family (INFA).
The Special Rapporteur’s programme also included meetings with deputies Ximena Ortíz
Crespo, who deals with migrants issues in the Congress’s Commission on Human Rights, and
Guilberto Talahua Paucar, Chair of the Congress’s Commission on Indigenous Affairs and other
ethnic groups.
11.
On 9 November a meeting was held with the Inter-institutional and International Adviser
on Development Cooperation of the Municipality of Santo Domingo de los Colorados,
Capt. Carlos Torres, Chief of Migration in the National Police of Santo Domingo, the
Ombudsman of Santo Domingo and a representative of INFA. Regrettably, it was not possible
to hold the scheduled meeting with civil-society organizations in Santo Domingo, because of
slippage in the programme. In the United Nations office, the Special Rapporteur met
representatives of indigenous organizations and later met the consuls of Bolivia, Italy and
Colombia.