Criminal groups in Ecuador’s Carchi province use drones to watch migrants and systematically extort them near the main Colombia-Ecuador border crossing, according to a joint report by the two countries’ human rights ombudsmen. Interviews with 59 migrants in July 2026 found that 23.7% reported extortion, 42.4% discrimination, 32.2% robbery and 13.6% physical attacks. People crossing the border pay the price as armed groups compete to control the routes.
The report doesn’t identify the groups that use drones, state how much they demand or say whether police have opened cases. It also doesn’t claim its interviews represent the entire migrant population. Those limits matter: the figures record serious abuse, but they don’t establish who committed every act.
At the crossing
The Rumichaca International Bridge connects Ipiales, in Colombia’s Nariño department, to Tulcán, the capital of Ecuador’s Carchi province. The report describes it as the countries’ main land crossing and a transit corridor toward Central and North America. It says new criminal groups in Tulcán, El Carmelo and Espejo watch migrants with drones and extort them.
At bus terminals, recruiters pretending to be tour operators sell “safe routes” to third countries for as much as US$300. Travellers face scams, abandonment and exploitation, the report says. Armed civilians accounted for the largest share of alleged attacks, linked to 75% of reported sexual violence cases and 57.9% of robberies. Victims attributed 21.4% of extortion cases and 20% of discrimination cases to security-force members. Three-quarters of those consulted filed no complaint.
Some women and girls, the report says, faced pressure to engage in “survival sex” for food or shelter. That’s the border’s human cost: not official security targets, but choices forced on people with few safe options.
Most recorded movements went south to north, at 79.7%; 66.1% involved entries into Colombia. Most migrants came from Chile, Peru and Ecuador, and 71.2% planned to continue home to Venezuela. Many, particularly Venezuelans, wanted to check on relatives after the June 2026 earthquake. Work or income drove 69.5% of people to move; family reunification accounted for 16.9%, and violence for 13.6%.
Control gets funding
The report charts Colombian armed groups and Ecuadorian gangs competing for routes used to move drugs, contraband, weapons, people and migrants. On the Colombian side, it lists the Coordinadora Nacional, known by the Spanish initials CNEB, and Comuneros del Sur. President Abelardo de la Espriella ended peace talks with both groups in late August and early September.
In Ecuador, the report names Los Choneros and Los Lobos, as well as members or collaborators of Tren de Aragua. It doesn’t accuse any of those named groups of carrying out the drone surveillance. That distinction matters: a list of armed actors isn’t proof of who operated the drones.
The Ecuador border accounts for 49% of irregular migration recorded by Migración Colombia, the national migration agency. In 2025, after Ecuador announced plans to deport 1,000 prisoners, 410 people crossed into Colombia at Rumichaca without joint protection protocols.
Donor money, meanwhile, has moved from social projects to border-control technology, including biometric systems, and security strategies. Officials announced U.S. cooperation with Colombia in March 2025 and signed an agreement with Ecuador in June 2026. Ecuador’s Frontera Segura (Safe Border) strategy starts with a pilot in Carchi province; the U.S. State Department’s narcotics and law enforcement bureau supplies training and equipment. The report doesn’t say whether the pilot targets groups using drones.
Shelter without a safety net
Ipiales had about 25 international aid organisations in 2024 and about five in 2026, the city’s migrant-aid coordination group told the mission. The Catholic Church runs the Pastoral Social shelter in Ipiales, which serves about 70 people a day and struggles to provide food. Children and teenagers accounted for 40% of those it sheltered in the first half of 2026. The report urges public funding to replace lost aid and stronger protection for women and children.
The ombudsmen also urged intelligence work against trafficking networks, but said authorities can’t handle the border “only from a migration-control or security perspective.” Their report sets that warning against a growing shift toward surveillance and security spending, even as a local shelter struggles to feed the people arriving at its door.