The Chilean Foreign Minister, Alberto van Klaveren, acknowledged “difficulties” for Venezuela to accept people expelled from the country in the context of the migration crisis that has been taking place for years on the northern border.
“I do not want to enter into controversy (…) I can assure you that there have been more than contacts, meetings, there have been efforts to approach Venezuela around the migration issue,” said the Chilean Foreign Minister in an interview with Radio Cooperativa.
“Until now there have been difficulties in reaching an agreement for Venezuela to accept new flights with migrants, as was done in previous times, but what we are going to try to do is help decompress the situation,” added the Secretary of State.
«The immigration issue is enormously complex (…). Cooperation is required at the regional level and we have been working on that for quite some time (…). We are making negotiations with both Bolivia and Venezuela,” he said.
Chile, which reinforced its border with Peru and Bolivia at the end of February with a large military contingent, has been experiencing a migratory crisis for years, which spilled over in 2021.
“Bolivia is not obliged to receive people, we cannot force it to open its borders to receive migrants who do not have documents, all this has to be achieved through conversation and cooperation,” Van Klaveren said.
“Despite not having full diplomatic relations with Bolivia, we have permanent contact and relations that have historically been quite normal,” he slipped.
Bolivia, with whom Chile has not had diplomatic relations since 1978, only receives Bolivian expellees and does not admit citizens of other nationalities who used its territory to reach Chilean soil.
The inclement Bolivian altiplano passes are the main irregular entry route to Chile, which continues to be one of the most attractive countries to migrate within Latin America due to its political and economic stability, despite the pandemic and the social crisis of 2019.
Continuing with the line that the president, Gabriel Boric, has indicated since he took office, the head of Chilean diplomacy emphasized the need for a “regional approach” to face the situation, considering that more than six million Venezuelans have left their country in a migratory flow comparable to the exoduses from Syria and North Africa.
Migrant smuggling, Van Klaveren reflected, “affects not only Chile, it affects Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, all countries that are part of the same chain, and for that a regional approach is required, but while develops, we also have to seek bilateral agreements that allow this problem to be mitigated.
Colchane, a small town located in the Tarapacá region, in the highlands, at more than 3,500 meters above sea level, is one of the main centers of irregular migration in South America, particularly the gateway to Chile for foreigners, in mostly Colombians, Venezuelans and Haitians.
In Chile, there are 1.4 million migrants, which is equivalent to more than 7% of the population, with Venezuelans being the most numerous, followed by Peruvians, Haitians and Colombians.
With information from EFE
