Remittances sent from Ecuador to Mexico during the third quarter of 2023 were $37.35 million, according to the latest data from the Central Bank. This represents an increase compared to the second quarter of 2023, when the money reached $21.89 million, and the third quarter of 2022, when $20.63 million left the country.

This, according to attorney William Murillo, attorney and director of the organization 1800 Migrante, This would be due to paying the Ecuadorians to rescue their abducted migrant relatives mafia in Mexico, with an increase in the number of Ecuadorians passing through that country to reach the United States, who need money to pay coyotes and other travel expenses.

According to the expert, an Ecuadorian family pays an average of 5,000 to 7,000 dollars per ransom.

They rescue 31 migrants kidnapped in Mexico, among them Ecuadorians

An El Oro family paid $32,000 to criminals in Mexico to rescue their son who was kidnapped in Ciudad Juárez. The young man had already been killed. “That case is one person. Multiply that by a hundred, by a thousand. They are doing a tremendous job.Murillo says. “If we see that from one quarter to the next there are millions of differences (in remittances), it is not only because of the increase in the number of people traveling, but a direct result of paying ransoms for kidnapped migrants.”

Colombia remains the country that receives the most money from its migrants living in Ecuador, with $85.69 million. Next is Mexico, Argentina with 16.54 million dollars and Peru with 15.67 million dollars. In total, $184.7 million in remittances were sent abroad, an increase of 12.8% compared to the second quarter of 2023.

In total, remittances sent to these four countries represented 75.6% of the total flow sent abroad in this period.

Migrant remittances will exceed $5 billion in 2023 in Ecuador

According to US Border Patrol figures, 107,848 Ecuadorians were apprehended at the Mexico-United States border from January to November 2023, the year with the highest number of Ecuadorians apprehended by border authorities of a North American power.

This flow of migrants represents “big business” for kidnappers, Murillo reveals, adding that the first logical step to dismantle the illegal industry, which drives as much money as the migrant trade, is to stop funding it.

However, the expert points out that there is no political will on the part of the Mexican or American authorities to cut off the channels through which the ransom money arrives.

“They close their eyes. It’s part of the job. It’s like the drug issue; everyone knows how much they move. They use it for politics. It is not politically profitable for them: the US and Mexico use it for the war on drugs; Now Ecuador is using it to wage war against the mafia. Everything with a political goal,” explains the lawyer.

Economist Guillermo Granja explains that a large part of the total money sent from Ecuador to other countries corresponds to the flow of immigrants who arrive attracted by the dollar, which results in a dynamic similar to that which Ecuadorians spend abroad supporting their families with money sent from other countries.

According to the 2022 Population and Housing Census, conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses, there are 425,045 foreigners living in Ecuador. Venezuelans are the largest foreign nationality, 231,686 of them. Remittances intended for Venezuela in the third half of 2023 amounted to 5.14 million dollars.

Colombians are the second largest foreign nationality, with 97,832 people, but send more money to their relatives, with $85.7 million in the third quarter of 2023.

The situation of Ecuadorian migrants in the United States could improve if the US government extends Temporary Protected Person (TPS) status. 1800 Migrante sent a letter to the President of the Republic, Daniel Noboa, asking him to request TPS for Ecuadorians in the United States due to the declaration of an internal armed conflict.

A country can request TPS for its migrants for the following reasons:

This would prevent Ecuadorians in the United States from being detained by the US Department of Homeland Security because of their immigration status. They also could not be removed from the United States because they were undocumented and could obtain work authorizations and travel permits.

This last point is crucial for Murillo. The holiday and fiesta return of Ecuadorians living in the United States who would otherwise be unable to travel because they do not have papers would be important to the local economy.

“This will generate an important economic reactivation. Imagine what 50,000 people from Cuenca would do to go to a carnival celebration after not seeing their families for 20 years,” Murillo exemplified. “They don’t come because they don’t have papers; It’s not that they don’t have money to spend.”

However, he says a letter asking Noboa to apply for TPS from the Joe Biden administration remains unanswered by the Ecuadorian state.