By MATÍAS DELACROIX and PATRICIA LUNA, Related Press
COLCHANE, Chile (AP) — A cruel solar seared the migrants as they walked via one of many driest locations on the earth, attempting to illegally cross the border from Bolivia into Chile fearing it would quickly be closed.
It has develop into frequent in current months to see migrants trudging throughout the Atacama Desert however the move seems to have elevated in current days forward of Chile’s presidential runoff Sunday. The migrants worry that if far-right candidate José Antonio Kast wins he’ll shut the border as he promised throughout his marketing campaign.
The conservative lawmaker, who has defended Chile’s army dictatorship, completed first within the nation’s presidential election in November however didn’t get sufficient votes to win outright organising a runoff in opposition to leftist Gabriel Boric. Kast has stated he’ll order a ditch to be constructed to forestall migrants from crossing from Bolivia.
Immigration has been a recurring matter in Chile’s presidential marketing campaign because the nation sees an growing move of migrants, primarily from Venezuela, but additionally from nations like Haiti and Colombia. It’s a divisive concern and not too long ago there was a extensively publicized case of Chileans attacking Venezuelan migrants in Iquique, close to the border with Bolivia and Peru.
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The U.N. Worldwide Group for Migration estimates there are virtually 1.7 million immigrants in Chile. Solely this 12 months, Chilean authorities have registered greater than 25,000 individuals arriving via the Atacama Desert, a big improve in comparison with the 16,500 for all 2020.
“We have now relations right here in Chile who advised us that we needed to go earlier than Dec. 19, as a result of if the one who gained the primary spherical (Kast) wins once more, he’ll shut all borders,” stated Rayber Rodríguez, a Venezuelan touring together with his spouse and daughter.
Tatiana Castro, a Colombian who additionally crossed into Chile via the desert, put it bluntly. “We needed to cross proper now for worry that they might ship us again.”
She stated individuals “have no idea how onerous it’s, that we now have to undergo many nations and throughout many borders the place it’s onerous for us, we now have to endure starvation… chilly climate.”
The border has been guarded for months by the police and the military, although migrants cross utilizing completely different paths within the desert in plain sight. The border space was empty till few years in the past. Now it seems to be just like the transit space of a prepare terminal.
As soon as in Chilean territory, migrants are usually not detained. Some preserve strolling to the closest metropolis whereas others flip themselves in to authorities to allow them to begin a course of that may assist them to regularize their immigration standing.
Colchane, a Chilean city close to the border with fewer than 1,600 inhabitants, largely Indigenous Aymara, has seen a continuing move of migrants in current months. Typically the migrants outnumber the native inhabitants.
“We will’t take it anymore”, stated Nicolás Mamani Gómez, who needs Kast to win, so “no extra immigrants will come.”
Among the migrants stroll additional after crossing the border and make it to the town of Iquique.
There, among the migrants have been dwelling in public parks and seashores. And never all of the residents are completely happy. A couple of weeks in the past, some locals attacked a camp the place Venezuelans had been staying and burned their belongings.
Virginia Carrasco, a 30 years-old Venezuelan, crossed the desert and entered into Chile together with her three youngsters — 11 and eight years previous, and a child of six months — in search of a greater life.
Carrasco stated she needs a greater well being care system for them.
“In Venezuela’s hospitals you get nothing,” she stated, as she dragged a cart crammed with suitcases, luggage and backpacks. “There are individuals who have died as a result of they can’t get medication or medical doctors. I count on a greater high quality of life for my youngsters in Chile, that’s why I got here right here.”
Luna reported from Santiago, Chile.
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