Ecuadorians living abroad now have access to consular services
online.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade and
Integration and IOM completed the first phase of the programme
which includes 10 Virtual Consulates online and fully
operational.  The second phase of the programme, ending in
December 2008, will make all Ecuadorian consulates around the world
available online.

In the third phase, to be developed in 2009, information will be
inter-connected amongst government institutions allowing for a
unified system.  The project also includes a Call Centre to
become operational in 2009 and will be available 24 hours, 7 days
per week to answer queries from those who do not have access to the
Internet or prefer to obtain information by telephone.

Through its web page,
href="http://www.consuladovirtual.gov.ec" target="_blank" title=
"">www.consuladovirtual.gov.ec, Ecuadorians will be able to
obtain information on migration issues and on all consular
services, and to make appointments to visit the Consulate of their
jurisdiction.  The Virtual Consulates will also allow the
Ecuadorian diaspora to obtain "Consular Protection" in emergency
situations.

It is estimated that more than two million Ecuadorians are
living abroad, the vast majority in the United States, Spain and
Italy.

At the launch of the first Virtual Consulate, Ecuador's Minister
of Foreign Affairs, María Isabel Salvador expressed her
congratulations and gratitude to the staff of her Ministry and to
IOM for the technical assistance provided in the Modernization of
the Ecuadorian Passport Project.  The IOM-managed passport
project has provided the Ecuadoran government with state-of-the-art
equipment to issue reliable and secure machine-readable travel
documents that guarantee compliance with security and quality
standards established by the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO). 

For more information please contact:

Ana María Guzmán

IOM Ecuador

Tel: 593.2.225.3948

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