Bolivia welcomes couple from Ukraine after being denied entry

A couple ukrainian who escaped from the war in his country came to bolivia this Sunday after being rejected a day earlier, after the government apologized and invited them to return.

The man and woman landed around 4:50 p.m. local time (20:50 GMT) in Santa Cruz, eastern Bolivia, invited by a compatriot who lives in the country, reported the immigration authority.

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“They are in the capacity of refugee applicants to remain in Bolivia”, said the general director of Migration, Katherine Calderón, after receiving the couple.

A group of Santa Cruz residents waited for them with flowers and welcome banners at the airport exit.

The Ukrainians had been returned to Argentina on Saturday, where they were passing through, for allegedly not meeting the entry requirements for Bolivia. They were held for 15 hours.

“The couple (…) did not have the confirmed return ticket, nor the hotel or reservation address, nor the formal invitation letter accredited by Migration,” assured the regional head of the Migration Directorate, Jorge Daga.

“What proceeds is inadmissibility and their return to the country from which they have come,” he added.

But the government contradicted that version and dismissed four officials for acting “without any justification,” Calderón said.

“This decision does not represent the will of the government with citizens who are in a situation of vulnerability, whatever their nationality,” he added.

In addition, the official sent a letter of apology to the couple and invited them to return to Bolivia.

The initial expulsion of the migrants drew criticism from the opposition to the government of leftist Luis Arce.

Right-wing former president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga (2001-2002), for example, wrote on Twitter that “prohibiting the entry of refugees from Ukraine into Bolivia would change the Arce government from an abstentionist accomplice due to Putinist servility to… active criminal complicity.” .

The former president alluded to the Executive’s neutral position on the invasion of Ukraine orchestrated by Russian President Vladimir Putin: Bolivia abstained from voting on a United Nations resolution condemning it.

According to the Foreign Ministry, 12 Bolivians residing in Ukraine had requested their repatriation to Bolivia until March 4. Five are already in neighboring Poland preparing to travel to Bolivia.

More than 2.7 million people have fled Ukraine since the war broke out, to which are added some two million internally displaced persons, according to figures from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

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Source: Elcomercio

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