04/27/2004

Refugees in the three countries we visited do not live in refugee camps.  They tend to be dispersed throughout the border regions and large commercial centers.  This is a house rented by a recent arrival to Ecuador. UNHCR gives asylum seekers three months of assistance in the form of food and a rent subsidy.  An elderly couple, their young son, and three grandchildren live in cramped conditions in this one room house. He is a farmer and is unable to find regular work.  He sometimes weeds for local farmers and can earn $1 a day.