Asunción, Oct 23 (EFE) .- Paraguay put into force a new Migration Law to adapt to international standards and streamline procedures for foreign citizens, in a scenario of recovery of visitor flows after the minimum recorded as a result of the pandemic.
In an interview with EFE, the general director of Migrations Paraguay, María de los Ángeles Arriola, referred to Law 6984, published in the Official Gazette last Tuesday, after receiving the endorsement of the Senate in July and being approved in September by the low camera.
“Today we can talk about the fact that we are already in agreement at the regional and international level,” explained Arriola, who leads Migrations for the second time, this time since March 2020.
A NATIONAL MANAGEMENT IS BORN
One of the main novelties of this regulation, which repeals 978 of 1996, is the creation of the National Directorate of Migration as an institution dependent on the Executive Power and no longer on the Ministry of the Interior.
“That allows us to be in accordance with what is the immigration policy and the international standards in terms of human rights,” explained the official, who indicated that they will have autonomy and self-sufficiency.
The regulation also introduces changes in terms of procedures and requirements. One of them is the elimination of the medical certificate that was required of foreigners who wanted to reside in the country, which had to certify that they did not suffer from any infectious or mental illness.
Arriola stressed that the legislation also incorporates obligations and recognizes rights such as access to work, mobility, health and education.
As for the procedures, the law stipulates that temporary residents may obtain a Paraguayan identity card, a document until now reserved for foreigners with a permanent residence visa.
In addition, the validity of the condition of temporary resident was extended from one to two years and a subcategory of residence was incorporated, spontaneous or occasional, valid for up to 90 days, extendable.
POST-PANDEMIC FIGURES
The legislation comes into effect as Paraguay sees its visitor statistics recover to 2019 levels.
“We had a flow of income, not only from foreigners, between Paraguayans and foreigners, of more than 2 million people,” Arriola mentioned.
The official figure was 2,236,125 people in the period between October 1 and 15, 2019.
According to the official, in 2020, 617,583 travelers arrived in the country in the same period and in 2021, 269,148 entries were recorded between those dates.
This year, the statistics reveal that until last October 15, 2,085,614 people had arrived in the country.
These figures correspond mostly to foreigners from neighboring countries, such as Argentina and Brazil, and mainly to movement through land crossings.
VENEZUELANS, PASSING
Asked about Venezuelan migration, the most numerous on the continent, the director of Migrations pointed out that the president of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez, established since his arrival in power, in 2018, the “priority attention” of this population and of the Cuban .
In this task, Migrations worked jointly with the National Commission for Stateless Persons and Refugees (Conare).
However, he warned that they discovered that Paraguay is a transit country for these migrants.
“Many have already left, either to Brazil or Argentina, those who entered through Bolivia and others who entered through Brazil went to Bolivia or to other countries,” he added.
In any case, he pointed out that his country joined the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection last June, signed by different countries on the sidelines of the Ninth Summit of the Americas hosted by the United States.
