Venezuelan migration opens fight between Peru and Chile: there are 1000 stranded

Due to the new requirements, they are on the Peruvian side for several days. dead the pregnant son of a Venezuelan

SANTIAGO, Chile.- After weeks of odyssey, the door dried up. An unthinkable tremor for hundreds of Venezuelan migrants during the last season of a long journey: the border between

Peru

and

Chile

.

On June 22, a new immigration regulation began to apply, forcing Venezuelans to apply for a special visa to enter Chile. The new legal order has surprised dozens of families at the entrance of the collapsed border crossing between Tacna (Peru) and Chacalluta (Chile), without access to basic services and forced to sleep outside.

The area of ​​the Chilean diplomatic headquarters in Tacna has been transformed into a kind of refugee camp and another face of the anguish of Venezuelans escaping from their country, which affects the whole region. "There is a limit: Chile does not have an unlimited capacity to receive foreigners", justified Rodrigo Ubilla, Undersecretary for the Interior of

Sebastián Piñera

, while the Peruvian government is trying to contain the border crisis.

Yesterday, the Chilean government confirmed
the death of the son of a pregnant Venezuelan woman who was waiting to enter the country from Peru through Tacna. "With regard to the consultations related to the collaboration that this consulate could have brought in this particular case, it is necessary to clarify that it is not possible for the country to provide medical badistance to citizens of another nationality located on a foreign territory, "explained the consulate of Chile. the Peruvian city.

"We had a very bad time, we closed the toilets, we had problems with electricity to recharge the phones and communicate with our families, I spent four nights on the road," says Joscel. Hernandez, a Venezuelan from the municipality of Juan Germán Roscio Nieves of Tacna. , a social communications graduate, traveled with her mother, father and four-year-old son. He then went through the same process as his compatriots: after the border agglomeration, the authorities left the premises and transferred them to the Chilean consulate in Tacna, 38 kilometers to the north, waiting for a visa. .

"They took us out of the way, but here people come every day and the tents pile up on the sidewalks, it's the children who are suffering and there are many in the street, sleeping in cartons. As if they were cradles, the cold hits us hard and during the day, the heat is unbearable, "accuses Jeribell Parada, of Maracaibo, who is in Tacna with his four children and his partner.

Those with more resources are staying in hostels and small hotels waiting for your appointment to apply for a visa. Others sell just about anything and live in overcrowded shelters, while many have chosen to set up camps on the street and receive help from social organizations and from those of Tacna, who give them food and warm clothes.

"There are more than 115 tents donated and they reach families in transit, rather than a migratory crisis, it is a regional crisis," said the priest José Tomás Vicuña, director of the Jesuit Migrant Service from Chile.

According to figures from Chile's Foreign Ministry, since June 22 – the date the consular visa began to reign – until last Thursday, the Chilean consulate in Tacna issued 522 tourist visas; 416 of democratic accountability and 91 of temporary character. And despite the fact that the office has increased the number of staff sent from Santiago and that a numbering system and web appointment has been set up, the representation and its surroundings have been overwhelmed by demand.

Expectations

"Priority has been given to children and their parents, we have issued 1,400 visas and there are still people around the consulate, so international badistance will be important for these Venezuelans, who are protection, improve their working conditions, wait and have legitimate access to a visa, "he says.
THE NATION Álvaro Bellolio, Head of the Department of Immigration and Migration of Chile.

"The most important thing is to manage the expectations and concerns generated by these citizens, with no specific answer." Last Tuesday we sent out 1,000 numbers of attention. The request is now digitally transmitted and we monitor the number of pending requests every day. ", adds Bellolio.

However, despite the announcements, the situation is complex. With the unprecedented plunge of thousands of Venezuelans pushed by the crisis, which has exceeded four million according to the UN, Chile has become the third destination for migrants of this nationality, with a presence of more than 400 000 people.

The explanation of Ubilla, under-secretary of the government Sebastián Piñera's interior, according to which "there is a limit" and that the country "does not have an unlimited capacity for to receive foreigners "in sign of the new Chilean strategy, which approves the actions of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru themselves to contain the migratory wave.

Guarequena Gutiérrez, representative of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó in Chile, warned that the crisis had no bounds. "As long as Nicolás Maduro is in power, people will flee Venezuela terrified," he said.
THE NATION.

"And what happens in Tacna happens in other consulates, in Caracas, people also sleep outside of these institutions because it's better than staying in Venezuela while waiting for death ", he adds.

"We understand that Chile wants to regularize migration and that it is a sovereign and autonomous state, but we have asked the Piñera government to be more flexible in the demands of the country. 39, admission, especially those related to family reunification, "said Gutiérrez.

From Tacna, far from the debate, the Venezuelans who, like Jeribell Parada, are stranded in the region only think of being taken in charge: "And that the official of the consulate of Chile gives us the visa and puts an end to this nightmare. "

A hot frontier due to the growing exodus

Consular visa

• The crisis on the border between Peru and Chile erupted on June 22 when the government of Sebastián Piñera began to ask Venezuelans for a "consular visa" to enter his territory as a tourist for 90 days of immigration , residence or development of remunerated activities "

shipments

• The Chilean consulate in Tacna has already issued 522 tourist visas; 416 democratic accountability and 91 temporary

Request

• More than 1,000 people are waiting in the vicinity of the consulate to visit the country.

IN ADDITION