QUITO, Ecuador (14 April 2006) -- Some 5,000 Ecuadoreans illegally residing in the ecologically fragile Galapagos Islands will face deportation to the mainland, Ecuador's Environment Minister Ana Alban said Wednesday. "There is a large quantity of people who enter as tourists" and stay much longer than they should, Ms. Alban told reporters. "We are working on a process to identify the illegals and bring them back to the mainland," she said. About 15,000 Ecuadoreans legally live on the islands, and work in fishing or tourism, under laws that prohibit indiscriminate migration. Alban said some 5,000 illegal residents in the archipelago had been identified, mostly on the islands of San Cristobal and Santa Cruz, where the largest town of Puerto Ayora is located. The Galapagos Islands, 1,000 kilometres off Ecuador's Pacific coast, are Ecuador's biggest tourist attraction. They are known for their unique flora and fauna, including marine iguanas, blue-footed boobies and giant tortoises that live up to 150 years of age. | | The islands, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. |
