“Let us cross. let us cross to Venezuela, please. I have 3 children with me”.
The claim of this Venezuelan is repeated among the migrants who are in the surroundings of Tacna, an area of the Peru close to the border with Chili known as the “Concord Line”.
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from the southern country around 200 people arrived in the last few days, among which there are minors, pregnant women and older adults with the objective of crossing Peru.
Without the relevant documents, the Peruvian authorities are not allowing them to enter and Chile does not want to receive them back either.
They are stranded.
Some have Chilean visas of different types, others entered through irregular steps and only have the identification of their native country. But they insist that what they want is to return to their countries.
“Put your hand on your heart, we don’t want to be in Peru or Chile. We want to be in Venezuela and see our loved ones,” a woman told the Chilean National Television channel (TVN).
According to UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, they are mostly Venezuelans but there are also Colombians and Haitians.
A “migration corridor”
With no chance to go forward or backward, many They are camping out in the open.
It is a place that “is extremely dirty, with a lot of garbage and flies. There are no bathrooms or hydration points. Many children are sick to their stomachs,” explains one of the reports prepared by the Open Assembly of Migrants and Promigrants (AMPRO). .
In many cases, UNHCR points out, these people “are without food, water, shelter or healthcare” in an area that is known for its extreme weather conditions.
“That they tell us that for ten years we cannot return to Chile or Peru, we do it. But wait here for a week, two weeks… I have my son (with me) and I don’t want this for him as a mother. We find ourselves between a rock and a hard place,” Venezuelan Yosier Canelón told Reuters.
In her case, she wants to go back to see her mother. “I have my mom and an aunt who have cancer and it’s stage three. My son is Chilean, I want to give life to my son here (in Chile). But if I stay, he’s not going to meet my mom.”
“There are no responses from the authorities and it is impossible to go to the (immigration) windows to carry out a procedure,” tells Lorena Zambrano, spokesperson for AMPRO in Tarapacá, Chile.
Given the despair and lack of solutions, in recent days there have been a series of clashes between the border police and the migrants, who have blocked the passage of trucks and vehicles on the road in order to lobby for help.
In a report, AMPRO denounces that people received “beatings” by the security forces.
There are several migrant organizations that They ask to create a migratory corridor. “That allows them to return home, whatever nationality they have, without being booked and then they can return, if they wish, complying with the laws of each country,” says Zambrano.
A clash between governments
The situation in the border area between Peru and Chile has several aspects.
On the one hand, the president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, decreed this Wednesday the State of Emergency at its borders. This will allow the police and military to carry out operations to try to control migration.
In Peru there are more than 1.4 million foreigners on the census, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INEI).
These measures will allow us regularize and identify foreigners who are in an irregular situation, as well as encourage formality in immigration control and in the labor market,” Boluarte said when making the announcement.
At the same time, also from Peru, they have said that the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric must assume control of his country’s borders.
The pressure increased even more after it was denounced that the Chilean military was helping migrants to cross through illegal crossings into Peru.
The accusation – announced by the Cuarto Poder program of the América Televisión channel – generated multiple reactions in both countries and forced the Chilean Army to open an investigation in this regard.
“What is happening on the border between Chile and Peru shows the limits of cooperation spaces between countries“, tells BBC Mundo Mayra Feddersen, professor at the Adolfo Ibáñez University Law School and principal investigator of the Millennium MIGRA nucleus
With all Chilean Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren assured that they are talking with the neighboring country with the aim of giving a diplomatic solution to the problem.
“The region has not been able to generate agreements to solve the migratory crisis. Each country is acting unilaterally, nobody wants to take charge. And this will not be resolved if we do not act together,” adds Feddersen.
Leave and return due to the crisis
In recent years and as a result of the economic and social crisis that your country is experiencing, more than 7.1 million Venezuelans have emigrated, according to UN figures. Their main destination has been neighboring Colombia but, in search of an improvement in their lives, they have reached other countries in the region.
One of his destinations was Chile, where, according to 2020 data, there were close to 500,000 Venezuelans, a third of the census of foreigners.
But now, as is the case with many of the people stranded on the adjoining border with Peru, They decided to leave the nation led by Gabriel Boric due to the lack of opportunities and the increase in rigidity in their immigration policies.
According to the Jesuit Service for Migrants (SJM) -which has been dedicated to studying the migration issue in Chile in the last decade-, since 2021 there have been more departures than entries of Venezuelans into the country. In 2021, for example, around 40,000 Venezuelans entered and more than 70,000 left.
Ignacio (fictitious name to protect his identity) was one of those who went to Chile and returned.
Ignacio traveled in 2016 in search of a better life. “In Venezuela we couldn’t buy anything, there was nothing”he laments in a call with BBC Mundo.
But 6 years later he decided to return because the economic conditions and his personal situation changed.
“The rent went up 200%, the labor market was damaged. Personally, we had a son who was diagnosed with autism and we looked for a public school, but we never got a place. And a private school is very expensive,” he says.
He also feels that he has changed the way people are. “After the 2017 protests, the attitude of the people changed. In addition to increasing the attacks on the street, they pointed me out all the time for being a foreigner, They told me that I could not give an opinion, that I should leave the country“.
ignacio he was able to leave by plane thanks to the financial support of his family since in 2016 the immigration procedures were easier and he obtained his residence and work permit a few months after arriving. But many do not have the economic capacity or the documents to leave.
More control, more fear
With the arrival of more migrants in Chile in recent years, the government of Boric has imposed strict control measures, including the militarization of the country’s northern border since February of this year.
Boric explained that these measures aim to “fight head-on criminal organizations that take advantage of these flows and needs of people to commit crimes such as human trafficking, drug trafficking and arms trafficking“.
For her part, the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, assured that “Chile has not done what it should do to have good control for a long time.”
“Not only were the military missing, but many things. There was a lack of personnel, technology, facilities, legal faculties and a lack of budget,” Tohá said when announcing the militarization of the northern Chilean border.
In addition, since mid-April, prosecutors throughout Chile have been ordered to request pretrial detention for all foreigners who are detained for committing a crime, regardless of its severity, whose identity cannot be proven.
It was announced by the national prosecutor, Ángel Valencia, after the death of a third police officer on duty in less than a month. He said that preventive detention will be maintained when “the identity (of the detainee) could not be reliably established by national media and until his identity can be established“.
The above adds to a series of laws passed by Parliament that expedite expulsions administration of migrants.
For Patricia Rojas, president of the Association of Venezuelans in Chile, these measures are a “regression in the rights of migrants” and have an “intention to persecute those who do not have Chilean documents.”
“The narrative installed in Chile stigmatizes and criminalizes foreigners, blaming them for structural problems such as security,” Rojas explained to BBC Mundo.
Migration is being a strong challenge for the South American nation. Measures have been taken against the clock to adapt integration policies but, also, the procedures to apply for a visa are increasingly difficult.
This, in part, it has caused there to be entrances and exits through what they call “disabled paths”.
“They reject the permits, the procedures are very long and they are not even processing the refugee applications,” says Feddersen.
“For this reason, many choose to enter clandestinely. The problem is that they cannot regularize their situation either and it is very complex.”
And now, with the new law on preventive detention, the scenario is even more complex. “They are afraid of being arrested and deprived of liberty”says Fedders in.
Not having the papers up to date generates a series of adversities for these people, such as not being able to access jobs or formal leases, which opens up a range of abuses.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.