The worsening of the migratory situation in the border area of Peru and Chile escalated the political tension between Lima and Santiago on Thursday, April 27. On Wednesday, April 26, the Peruvian president, Dina Boluarte, blamed Venezuelan migrants and Haitians from the increase in crime affecting their country. He said that it is foreigners who commit the most criminal acts on a daily basis, for which he called it necessary to reformulate the Immigration Law and review the issue of migration.
Peru and Chile are considering opening a humanitarian corridor to address the migration crisis on their shared border. This after the Peruvian government reinforced security on Friday, April 28, with the deployment of hundreds of soldiers in the border area.
One day after the escalation of political tension between Lima and Santiago over the situation of migrants at their border, the Chilean Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, Gloria de la Fuente, said that the authorities of both countries have had an “open and fruitful” dialogue in recent days” and that, in the talks, the possibility of opening a humanitarian, air or land corridor has been pointed out.
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He qualified, however, that this “requires the will of the countries to which the migrants want to return.”
“The main objective of the fund is to create a humanitarian corridor from Chile so that these people can return to their country,” said the Chilean Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve.
At the border point of both countries, called the Concord Line, hundreds of migrants, most of them Venezuelans and Haitians, have been stranded for days without being able to return to Chilean territory or enter Peru, without water, food or sanitary services.
The President of Peru, Dina Boluarte, blamed Venezuelan migrants and Haitians from the increase in crime affecting their country. He said that foreigners are the ones who commit the most criminal acts on a daily basis, for which he called it necessary to reformulate the Immigration Law and review the issue of migration.
“You yourselves are the ones who transmit every day that those who commit daily assaults, robberies and other criminal acts are foreigners, that is why we have to reformulate the immigration law, look at this issue of migration,” he said at a press conference , this April 26.
Peru reinforces security
The Peruvian Defense Minister, Jorge Chávez, traveled this afternoon to the southern Peruvian region of Tacna, adjacent to the Chilean region of Arica, to supervise the arrival of 196 soldiers who will support the Peruvian National Police (PNP) in control area, where the situation today remained calm.
Chávez rejected, however, that Peru is going to “militarize” the border and remarked that it will respect the agreement with Chile so that its Armed Forces remain at least one hundred meters from the border area.
The military, the minister insisted, will support the security work of the Police in the event that border control is violated and people without documents enter national territory, as happened this Thursday, the same day the state entered into force. emergency decreed by the Peruvian Government in all its border departments.
Officials from the Superintendence of Migrations of Peru also traveled to the Concord Line this Friday to begin individually reviewing the documents and the migratory situation of the people gathered at the border, giving priority to the most vulnerable groups, including people with children, pregnant women and the elderly.
The problem, however, is that documents are required that many displaced people do not have.
UN calls for dialogue
The worsening of the migratory situation in this border area escalated the political tension between Lima and Santiago on Thursday.
On the one hand, the Peruvian government summoned the Chilean ambassador to express “its protest at the lack of collaboration shown by the Chilean police authorities” and, on the other hand, the foreign ministry of the southern country summoned the Peruvian ambassador to ask him for explanations for some statements by the mayor of Tacna, Pascual Güisa.
Güisa referred to the Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, in an interview as “unnameable and irresponsible” and pointed out that his administration “is transferring the problem” of migration in his country, in line with what the Peruvian prime minister, Alberto Otárola, expressed, who asked Boric to “solve their problems and not throw them to another country”.
Faced with this situation, the UN spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, today asked the governments of both countries to talk to solve the migration problem at their border and expressed “concern” about the situation of the people who remain blocked in their attempt to leave Chile.
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