Colombia and Ecuador meet at the first Binational Meeting of the EUROFRONT Programme to address regional cooperation needs at the Rumichaca border

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Colombia and Ecuador meet at the first Binational Meeting of the EUROFRONT Programme to address regional cooperation needs at the Rumichaca border
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The European EUROFRONT Programme has held a Binational Meeting between Colombia and Ecuador at the main border between the two countries, the Rumichaca border. In collaboration with seven partner countries in South America, the FIIAPP leads this programme with the aim of contributing to security, the protection of human rights and economic and social development in Latin America.

The meeting addressed the need for cooperation between agencies and institutions on both sides of the border. Both sides also expressed their interest in analysing the possible establishment of a Police and Customs Cooperation Centre in Rumichaca. The proposal comes exactly one year after delegations from both countries visited the Police Cooperation Centre in Paso Canoas (Costa Rica-Panama), a benchmark for regional cooperation promoted by the PAcCTO programme.

The EUROFRONT team pointed out that this was “a valuable opportunity to show how cooperation with European support can offer specific support to the most relevant issues prioritised by both partner countries: irregular migration, border management mechanisms and associated transnational crime”.

For his part, the Undersecretary for Migration of the Government of Ecuador, General Olivo, stressed that “the cooperation work for the improvement of cross-border crime that can be carried out must go a step further than the simple capacities that exist in migration control, requiring raising the level towards international certifications that integrate and enrich the capacities already in place”.

The 2nd Secretary of the Foreign Ministry Working Group on Bilateral Cooperation in Colombia, Edgar Andrés Rodríguez, stated that “in favour of the dialogue held, processes of revision of the proposals presented have been jointly developed, which we hope to make viable as soon as possible. For us it is essential to establish mechanisms for the exchange of information and intelligence, while strengthening and systematising border information exchange actions”.