Nizan Ch., 56, has already been living for over six weeks inside Guayaquil’s José Joaquín de Olmedo Airport, sleeping on seats in the waiting areas, eating from the meal tickets of the last airline he flew and even gaining access to the occasional shower.

The Lebanese citizen, who has lost his documents, apparently arrived two months ago as a tourist in Guayaquil. His previous attempts to return home took him to Lima and as far as Spain before finally being sent back to Ecuador.

He was stuck in the terminal for over a month before airport officials became aware of his case, prompting intense consultations with the Foreign Ministry and immigration authorities. The lack of a Lebanese Embassy in Ecuador is a major complication.

Quito’s Foreign Ministry has given the airport squatter an emergency visa to travel to Bogotá (where there is a Lebanese Embassy) but he lacks an entrance visa for Colombia.
Meanwhile Ecuador’s Ombudsman is considering presenting a habeas corpus on his behalf.

But Nizan Ch. is in a legal limbo since he has not sought asylum in Ecuador, for which there is a definite procedure. In 2016 the Permanent Committee for the Defence of Human Rights registered seven asylum-seekers as being held incommunicado for months before finally being deported in some cases and last year this figure is thought to have risen to 20.
But this airport squatter lies beyond the scope of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).