A new IOM pilot project in Ecuador's northern border will focus on
the prevention of forced recruitment of minors by illegal armed
groups and promote the rights of children and adolescents.

The pilot project is being carried out in the community of Santa
Barbara, a rural community near the country's northern border which
has been directly affected by the spread of the Colombian conflict
across the border into Ecuador. It will establish community-based
strategies to identify and strengthen local protection mechanisms
and map the vulnerabilities, risks and opportunities faced by the
community related to security and violence.

The mapping is done with the direct participation of children
and youth, their parents, and public and private institutions
working in the area.

The results of the mapping exercise will provide a framework to
develop local public policy, development planning and
community-based activities aimed at preventing and mitigating the
impacts of poverty, violence and armed conflict on minors.

In 2008, a United Nations report denounced the forced
recruitment of minors by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
or FARC in Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela.  According to the UN
report, the average age of these minors is between 12 and 18.

The vast majority are forcibly recruited near schools, in areas
like sports fields and parks, and other public areas.  The
recruiters approach the minors with offers of money, cell phones,
clothing and other commodities, and then use them as mules to
transport drugs and to run errands.  Eventually they are
forced to become fighters.  Although female recruits are also
used as fighters, they are exposed to sexual exploitation.

"If there is one segment of the Colombian population who have
sought international protection in Ecuador whose rights are
violated more than any other, it is minors.  This is also
affecting Ecuadorian children.  Although there are no
confirmed numbers of minors recruited along Ecuador's northern
border, the practice exists. With this pilot project we hope to
prevent this heinous practice," explains Rogelio Bernal, IOM Chief
of Mission in Ecuador.

Last November two Ecuadorian minors, male and female, were
killed during a firefight inside Colombia.

The project will also strengthen the knowledge, skills and
resources of the local authorities and the community regarding
children's rights, provide technical assistance for the
consolidation of a formal board charged with promoting children's
rights, assist in the organization of a community prevention
committee that will propose, endorse and monitor the situation of
children and youth in the area.

"Minors between 14 and 15 years old, living in extreme poverty
and from broken families, are the most vulnerable for recruitment
because in many cases they are offered money, cell phones, and
other items, in order to persuade them," adds Bernal.

The methodology for this pilot project was developed by IOM
Colombia, where it has been successfully carried out for the past
10 years and has directly assisted 4,394 minors rescued from
illegal armed groups to reunite with families or improve relations
with family members, return to school or provide income generation
opportunities, either through employment or to set up micro
enterprises.

IOM Ecuador hopes to extend the project to the entire northern
border region.

For more information, please contact:

Ana Guzman

IOM Ecuador

Tel: + (593-2) 225-3948

E-mail: "mailto:aguzman@iom.int">aguzman@iom.int