Legal reform against human trafficking and migrant smuggling

The Official Registry published on Monday, November 9, 2026, the Organic Reform Law to the Organic Law against Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants, in the Sixth Supplement No. 405. The regulation, sanctioned by President Daniel Noboa Azín and approved by the Plenary of the National Assembly on October 20, 2026, rewrites the definitions and principles of the matter and reorganizes the regime of protection, assistance, and reparation for victims.

The procedure is detailed in the bulletin itself: the Plenary discussed the project in the first debate on December 9, 2025 (session No. 056-AN-2025-2029) and approved it in the second debate on October 20, 2026 (session No. 132-AN-2025-2029). The president of the Assembly, Mishel Mancheno Dávila, forwarded the text to the Executive via official letter No. AN-MDMA-2026-0009-O, with certification from the secretary general Jorge López Terán, and President Daniel Noboa Azín sanctioned the law on November 9 in the province of Los Ríos. Official letter No. T. 532-SGJ-26-0417, signed by the legal secretary general Aldrin Gómez Valdiviezo, forwarded the certified copy for publication. The reform text consists of 26 articles, three reformatory provisions, one general, three transitory, one derogatory, and one final provision, and is effective from the date of its publication.

The victim at the center and a new catalog of definitions

The law replaces the object of the regulation and adds to Article 4 the principles of victim-centeredness and due diligence, inter-institutional and inter-sectoral coordination, international cooperation, and the best interests of girls, boys, and adolescents. It also incorporates an Article 5.1 with seven approaches: human rights, gender, interculturality, intersectionality, human mobility, human security, and territorial.

The new Article 5 replaces the definitions with 24 literals, including:

• Abuse of a situation of vulnerability, recruitment, retention, and transfer, with assessment based on the context of each conduct.
• Specialized temporary housing, distinct from any other housing due to its focus on the restitution of rights.
• Immediate assistance and protection, which must be activated within the first forty-eight (48) hours from the detection of evidence.
• High-risk sectors, whose technical qualification is referred to the Regulation of the law.
• Trafficker and smuggler, defined as natural or legal persons with any form of authorship or participation.

The reformed Article 27 establishes that comprehensive protection and specialized assistance—legal advice, health, housing, food, consular assistance, migratory regularization—will not depend on whether the victim reports the crime or cooperates with the criminal investigation.

Committee of 16 institutions, technical tables, and adaptation deadlines

The leadership of public policy is transferred to the governing body for citizen security, internal protection, and public order, which also presides with a casting vote over the Inter-institutional Coordination Committee for the Prevention of Human Trafficking and Smuggling of Migrants and Protection of their Victims. The Committee is composed of 16 entities, including:

• the governing ministries of defense, governance and human rights, human mobility, health, education, labor, tourism, and infrastructure and technology;
• the Financial and Economic Analysis Unit (UAFE), the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses, the Judiciary Council, the State Attorney General’s Office, and the Public Defender’s Office;
• a representative of the Decentralized Autonomous Governments, while the Ombudsman’s Office participates as an observer for human rights.

The Committee will hold ordinary sessions every four months and must establish three permanent technical tables—Prevention and Promotion of Rights, Assistance and Protection, and Monitoring of Investigations and Judicialized Cases—which will meet at least every two months, in addition to the Case Coordination Team. Failure to provide timely information to the case registration system shall be grounds for dismissal. The transitional provisions set 120 days to install the reformed Committee and 180 days to adapt the detection, referral, and digital alert protocols.

Sentences of up to 35 years and new crimes in the COIP

The reform provisions modify the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code. Article 91 expands the means of commission—including the unlawful retention or destruction of passports or identity and travel documents—and lists eight modalities of exploitation, such as illegal organ extraction, debt bondage, illegal adoption, and forced recruitment for armed conflicts. Article 92 increases the sentencing scales:

• 19 to 22 years of imprisonment as the basic penalty;
• 22 to 26 years if the victim belongs to a priority attention group;
• 26 to 30 years if serious, permanent, or irreversible injuries or damages occur;
• 30 to 35 years if the victim dies.

Article 163.2 is added, which criminalizes forced marriage and forced common-law unions with penalties of three to five years, extendable to five or seven if the victim is a minor or if there is a power relationship or economic dependence. Articles 31.1, 44, and 45 mandate the State Attorney General’s Office to promote asset investigations with reports from the UAFE and enable an anonymous and free digital reporting line against online recruitment.

The preamble of the law invokes Judgment No. 1072-21-JP/24 and consolidated cases, dated November 21, 2024, in which the Constitutional Court determined that Furukawa Plantaciones del Ecuador C.A. subjected workers to peonage and ordered an inter-institutional public policy. Articles 8, 15, 16, 17, 24, 30, 34, 35, 36, 37, and 41 of the current law are also expressly repealed.

The reform enters into force on the day of its publication; therefore, its deadlines, penalties, and reporting obligations are already enforceable for judges, prosecutors, police, and protection entities. For human rights organizations, the critical point will be the installation of the reformed Committee and the technical tables, upon which it depends that 48-hour assistance and comprehensive reparation cease to be mere statements and become verifiable services.

Source: Official Registry of Ecuador, Sixth Supplement No. 405, Monday, November 9, 2026, pgs. 1-46 (official reference: Organic Reform Law to the Organic Law against Human Trafficking and the Illicit Trafficking of Migrants, published in the Sixth Supplement No. 405).