Ecuador is facing a growing crisis that is happening largely out of sight.

More than 300,000 Ecuadorians have been forced to leave their homes over the past three years because of escalating violence, including death threats, extortion, gang recruitment and the murder of family members, according to the UN Refugee Agency and Ecuador’s Ombudsman’s Office.

The real number could be even higher.

The scale of the displacement now places Ecuador third in Latin America behind only Haiti and Colombia, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Families Are Abandoning Their Homes

Some of the most disturbing accounts are coming from Nueva Prosperina, a district of Guayaquil where rival criminal factions have fought for control of neighbourhoods.

Residents told Reuters that families have fled homes they lived in for decades after shootings, threats and extortion became part of everyday life.

In some cases, abandoned homes are reportedly stripped by gangs or used to hide kidnapping victims.

One 66-year-old grandmother told Reuters she finally decided to leave after bullets began hitting rooftops in her neighbourhood. She feared her daughter could be killed simply travelling to work and that her teenage grandson could eventually be recruited by a gang.

For thousands of families, leaving means abandoning not only a house, but schools, jobs, businesses, neighbours and entire communities.

Ecuador’s Violence Crisis Continues

Ecuador was once considered one of the safer countries in Latin America.

That has changed dramatically as the country has become an increasingly important transit point for international drug trafficking and criminal organizations have fought over territory and trafficking routes.

Ecuador recorded 9,216 violent deaths in 2025 — a homicide rate of approximately 51 per 100,000 people and roughly eight times the rate recorded a decade earlier.

President Daniel Noboa has pursued an aggressive security strategy against organized crime since taking office in 2023. But violence remains extremely high, while the fragmentation of major criminal organizations has created new battles between rival factions.

There is another major problem: Ecuador still does not have a specific legal framework recognizing and addressing internal displacement caused by criminal violence.

That can leave families who flee struggling to access government assistance, with many moving in with relatives or relocating to another city on their own.

Behind the statistics are hundreds of thousands of Ecuadorians who have had to make an unimaginable decision: leave everything behind or risk staying in a neighbourhood they no longer feel safe calling home.