More than 600 soldiers were deployed this Wednesday to collaborate with the police in controlling irregular migration in four provinces in northern Chile, bordering Bolivia and Peru, within the framework of a state of emergency decreed by the government.
The state of emergency contemplates the deployment of 672 soldiers and increases 100 police officers to control the borders with Bolivia and Peru in the provinces of Arica, Parinacota, Tamarugal and El Loa where thousands of migrants, mainly Venezuelans, cross on foot from the 2020 by inhospitable clandestine steps that reach 4,000 meters of altitude.
The measure lasts for 15 days, which the government may extend for another 15 days.
It will allow police and military patrols, establish observation posts; deploy unmanned aircraft, drones and helicopters for surveillance and transfer, in addition to the use of night vision and thermal cameras supported by modern satellite communication equipment.
“Yes to legal migration, yes to those who have been telling the truth to our borders. No to illegal immigration, not to those who enter by cheating or not telling the truth, using falsified documents, going through unauthorized steps,” said Chilean President Sebastián Piñera, after announcing the start of the military deployment in Santiago.
The state of exception is one of the measures that the government agreed with the truckers’ unions to lift the blockades they carried out over the weekend in northern and central regions of Chile in protest at the death of a colleague in an incident with foreigners in in the midst of a migration crisis in that area that has also provoked protests from local residents.
The Andean town of Colchane, on the border with Bolivia, is the most used passage for foreigners to enter Chile and where 23 migrants have died in the last year. Those who manage to reach Chilean cities have settled in tents or in squares or walk adrift asking for help.
Shelters installed in Colchane by the government for migrants have been collapsed, while the border complex was closed after the entry into force of a new migration law that allows irregular migrants to be ‘redirected’ to the border.
“There have already been more than 100 renewals and we are going to continue with it,” said Piñera.
Source: Gestion
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