Chile expelled 55 Venezuelans in another controversial procedure | the Chronicle

The Chilean government today deported 55 Venezuelans by air, accusing them of illegal entry and more serious crimes, in a procedure that has been questioned by immigrant aid organizations .

Investigative Police (PDI) transported the Venezuelans by five buses to Iquique airport – some 2,400 kilometers north of Santiago – dressed in hooded coveralls and masks, handcuffed, and each accompanied by ‘an agent.

There, they boarded a plane bound for Caracas, according to images provided by the regional government of Tarapacá and cited by the AFP news agency.

The procedure was similar to that used last February, when 138 immigrants were expelled, mostly Venezuelans and Colombians, but also Peruvians and Bolivians.

Criticisms from humanitarian organizations that international treaties for the protection of refugees are violated are also similar.

“This is the first of the flights contracted by the Under-Secretary of the Interior and the Directorate of Immigration and Migration to materialize expulsions, whether judicial or administrative,” said the Under-Secretary to the interior, Juan Francisco Galli, at a press conference.

The official clarified that “in this case there are 55 foreign nationals”, 40 of whom were deported for entering Chile through prohibited stages and the remaining 15, for crimes such as theft and smuggling of migrants or drug.

With this new deportation process, the government of President Sebastián Piñera intends to deport around 1,500 foreigners this year, for whom it has leased 15 commercial planes that will perform as many flights.

So far this year, 200 foreigners have already been deported in air force planes, in operations that will continue alongside the deportation process that began today, Galli said. .

In addition, 1,365 foreigners were deported last year, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.

Humanitarian organizations have denounced that these procedures violate the rights of immigrants because their documents are confiscated, their access to lawyers is prevented and the arrest violates the brand new migration law, in force since last Tuesday.

This rule establishes that those who entered with a passport or ID before March 18, 2020 can obtain a visa.

Likewise, it contemplates that those who entered through unauthorized stages have 180 days to leave the country and go to a Chilean consulate abroad to apply for a visa and, if granted, they can come back to it.

“It is not understood that at the same time as the law authorizes the regularization of these people, they are expelled without giving them the possibility of benefiting from this process,” said the Jesuit Migrant Service.

Last January, more than 3,800 foreigners, mostly Venezuelans, entered the Chile-Bolivia border irregularly, and four Venezuelans and one Colombian died in the attempt, according to official data.