At least 86 Venezuelan and Colombian immigrants, and another 52 Peruvians and Bolivians were expelled from Chile this Wednesday after having entered the Australian country irregularly. A plane with Colombians and Venezuelans left this morning from the northern city of Iquique, where all immigrants who cross irregularly through unauthorized crossings between Bolivia and Chile, in the Andean highlands, are taken.
Bolivians and Peruvians return by bus to their countries, bordering Chile. The situation has been repeating itself frequently in recent weeks and has led the Chilean authorities to reinforce with police and military the border crossing of the city of Cochrane, more than 3,000 meters high in the Andes mountain range, beyond that the borders of Chile are closed preventively as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
These are people who have not committed serious crimes, it is appropriate that they be expelled, it is necessary to give a powerful signal that those who want to come to Chile have to obtain a visa, sincerely stating the reasons why they want to come said Interior Minister Rodrigo Delgado, from Iquique about 2,100 km north of Santiago. Delgado, together with the Minister of Defense, Baldo Prokurica, and the Foreign Minister, Andrés Allamand, traveled the day before to the town on the border with Bolivia to report on the deployment carried out in the area to prevent migrants from crossing irregularly to Chile through of the desert that surrounds the only highway enabled to cross the border.
All those people who think to enter by clandestine steps their fate will be expulsion said the Interior Minister, who added that this flight is the first of many. According to local authorities, 3,600 foreigners crossed irregularly through the northern border in January, ten times more than last year, and more than 1,500 have passed through Coltrane, two of whom died.
After entering on foot through an inhospitable road under extreme temperatures, they camp in this small town inhabited by indigenous Aymara communities and then continue their journey to the cities of Iquique or Santiago. Since 2014, nearly 500,000 Venezuelans have settled in Chile looking for better economic options. Venezuelans have become the largest foreign colony in Chile.
In 2018, the government of Sebastian Pinera put into effect a visa of democratic responsibility for Venezuelans who want to establish themselves legally, which continued until January, as confirmed by the Chilean Foreign Ministry to AFP. This document allows them to have an identity card and facilitates their integration into the country. However, the Jesuit Migrant Service assures that in recent months the application for this visa has been massively rejected.
