Chile to set up shelters in the north of the country to help Venezuelan migrants

The government of Chile announced on Wednesday that in the coming days will set up several shelters in the north to help the hundreds of Venezuelans who are stranded after crossing the border through illegal crossings in what is the biggest migration crisis in the country’s recent history.

“We have to take charge of a reality, thousands of people have entered, mainly Venezuelan citizens, although this is not the only nationality that enters, and for that we have defined a strengthening of humanitarian measures“, said the Chilean Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Delgado.

Delgado explained that shelters will be set up in the border towns of Colchane and Huara where will they be delivered basic necessities, but also in Iquique, the first big city that migrants encounter when they arrive from Bolivia.

Will also be built children’s centers in collaboration with Unicef ​​and Hogar de Cristo and vouchers will be issued so that migrants can stay in hostels associated with the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

“We estimate the care of 3,600 children and adolescents and 5,400 adults in the next 12 monthsSaid Social Development Minister Karla Rubilar.

The border post between the small Chilean town of Colchane and Bolivia, an Andean area at more than 3,600 meters above sea level with extreme temperatures and where at least 12 people have already died so far this year, in recent months, it has become a common route for foreigners arriving in Chile irregularly.

Neither the pandemic nor the social crisis that lasted more than a year in 2019 discouraged the desire to migrate to Chile, one of the most attractive countries in Latin America due to its political and economic stability.

After a peak of admissions last February, the crisis has worsened in recent days with hundreds of strangers wandering in different places.

On Saturday, moreover, Nearly 5,000 people gathered in Iquique with xenophobic cries and burnt tents, clothes and strollers from migrants, among other items., events which shocked the country and aroused strong criticism from the UN rapporteur and Amnesty International.

According to official data, between January and July of this year, there were more than 23,600 complaints of entry into the country by unauthorized stages, i.e. 40% more than in 2020.

“During the last 15 days, the illegal income in this area, with the measures we have taken, have been progressively lower, and we are monitoring these numbers in real timeSaid Delgado, who also announced increased security and surveillance in the area with more police and satellites.

In order to prevent illegal entry, the Chilean President, Sebastien Piñera, enacted a new, stricter immigration law in April that requires foreigners to obtain visas in their country of origin and allows deportations.

Since then they have been deported at least in five charter flights over half a thousand people of different nationalities.

In Chile there are 1.4 million migrants, which is equivalent to over 7% of the population, and Venezuelans are the most numerous, followed by Peruvians, Haitians and Colombians.

(With information from EFE)

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