This Wednesday, a Chilean delegation arrives in the country to talk with the authorities about the upcoming humanitarian flights of migrants.
This was announced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Alberto van Klaveren.
In this sense, he explained that the objective of the visit is “to know the willingness of Venezuela to generate new flights.”
“The information that your Embassy in Chile has given us is that there are several citizens who want to return,” Klaveren said during his appearance before a parliamentary commission on Tuesday.
The team traveling to Venezuela is made up of the Secretary General for Foreign Policy of the Foreign Ministry, Alex Wetzig, and the Consular Director General, Rodrigo Donoso.
Homeland Plan Flight
The visit takes place after on Sunday a Venezuelan aircraft repatriated, from the northern city of Arica, 115 people who had been stranded for several weeks on the Chilean-Peruvian border, reports Prensa Latina.
The flight was part of Return to the Homeland Plancreated by Venezuela in August 2018 to guarantee the voluntary and safe return of its compatriots.
The Chilean foreign minister said he hoped that the sunday trip “be the first of several that should be the subject of diplomatic negotiation.”
He indicated that the next flights do not necessarily have to depart from Arica, but also from Santiago and other territories.
Another possibility, he pointed out, is to organize charter trips by the Chilean Air Force.
Regarding the establishment of a land corridor, he commented that it creates tremendous logistical difficulties to reach an agreement between six countries for a route of 5,000 kilometers, although he did not exclude this option.
Van Klaveren added that combining a land corridor with an aerial one is also being studied.
Hundreds of migrants from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti and other countries were trapped on the demarcation line, when they tried to cross to the Peruvian side to continue on their way to their countries or to other destinations.
The militarization of the border between Chile and Peru prevented the passage of undocumented immigrants, who are in an area with very hot temperatures during the day and freezing temperatures at night.
The Chilean authorities tightened their measures against foreigners and recently the National Prosecutor’s Office announced that preventive detention will be applied to those who are detected without the required documentation.
