Migrations recognized that it is impossible discriminate against border transit that crosses from Uruguayan departments to Argentine towns to make purchases or bring contraband merchandise.
authorities of the General Directorate of Migration appeared before the Special Commission of the Border with Argentina of the Parliament to answer queries about controls to Uruguayans to Argentine border towns. Legislators had been concerned about the increase in smuggling as a result of the exchange gap with Argentina.
The National Director of Migration, Edward Mata, explained the procedure applied by the agency at the borders. “The income to Argentina of all the people who leave Uruguay are the exclusive responsibility of Migración Argentina. In a reciprocal way, all the income that is given to our territory is the responsibility of Uruguay and ours, ”he said.
Mata acknowledged that the income control system does not have advanced technology, since it is from 2003, and that creates limitations to access information. “To know if the entry and exit is repeated, we would have to do an individual search on each person, to see how many times they entered and left,” he said.
There is an ongoing tender to acquire new technology that, from the authorities’ point of view, will allow access to more complete information and in a more agile way. About him control of vehicles He explained that it does not correspond to the agency and is carried out by personnel from the National Customs Directorate. for so longor, Immigration only performs license plate registrations.
EFE / Juan Ignacio Roncoroni
The unit’s operational coordinator, Alexander Ruiz, indicated that during long weekends a greater volume of people is observed in places bordering the border and the flow of people increases considerably. “They go back and forth throughout the day, whether it’s to shop, go to the supermarket or go out for lunch. This is a reality,” she noted.
Mata later reported that “that discrimination of the repetitive crossing of certain people, statistically it would not be possible. We can extract information about whether a person crossed and how many times he did. The system does not allow border transit to be discriminatedthe neighborhood transit, the transit of people who come from other places”.
Therefore, he stated that “it is not possible to make such discrimination. From a person it could be established where he lives she and the times he crossed, but those are not the data that are needed ”.
The hierarch recognized that if a person presents to the officials the documentation that is requiredpYou can cross the border once or 10 times if you wish.
Salto is one of the departments that has felt the exchange rate difference with Argentina the most. A report on consumption, prepared by Scantech, mentioned that a type shopping cart for products (composed of food, beverages, personal care and cleaning items) is 70% cheaper in commercial premises in Concordia than in the Uruguayan department. For this reason, consumption in retail stores in Salta deteriorates monthly. Something similar occurs in other cities such as Paysandú or Fray Bentos.
