Church in Chile to help regularize migrants amid new migration law

The Catholic Church in Chile is looking to alleviate difficulties faced by migrants arriving in the South American country in search of a better future and to help them access constitutionally guaranteed rights amid the country’s new Migration Law.

"One of our goals is to ensure the regular residence of migrants and refugees and to repair the damage caused by the historical delays of recent years. We want to give people information and the opportunity to do this to find out the status of their application process and to be able to complete it,” said Luis Thayer, Director of the Chilean Migration Service, during the XXII edition of Migration and Refugee Days held in Santiago, November 10-11 to implement the new Migration Law.

“We also want to bring the labor market in line with the migration policy in order to meet the productive needs of the country... because the integration into the labor market solves many problems of migration and social cohesion in the affected areas", Thayer said.

Thayer pointed out that from April, when the new government took office, to September, some 200,000 pending temporary visa applications were released, and of the 300,000 pending permanent resident visa applications, about 70,000 were processed. According to Thayer, the new Migration Law enacted in April 2021, includes respect for human rights.

Looking at ways to define an effective migration policy

The conference on migration and refugees is organized by the Chilean Catholic Institute for Migration, which aims to contribute to the national migration policy. Representatives from international agencies such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration are participants. This year the conference is looking at ways to define an effective migration policy, given the challenges of the new Migration Law and the new constitutional process in Chile.

The initiative with the motto "Building the future with migrants and refugees" was originally launched in 1997 and takes its lead from Pope Francis. It has worked to involve various representatives of civil society organizations, central and local government agencies and international organizations and the private sector to reflect on migration policies, with the aim of promoting the political, social and cultural rights of migrants and refugees within a national and international context.

The Catholic Institute for Migration has already expressed its concerns regarding the difficulties faced by the migrants arriving in our country in search of a better future continue at the difficulties they are exposed to. The fact that many enter illegally does not make these people any less valuable. The Institute has welcomed the new Migration Law but noted that there was a lack of clarity about the implementation process, delay in the procedures for legalizing migration status, leading to the presence of undocumented foreigners in the country who do not have access to constitutionally guaranteed rights such as work, health, education, housing and justice.

Chile is undergoing a new look at its migration policy ever since the country recently elected its youngest president, Gabriel Boric, 36, a left-leaning former student leader. Boric had vowed that his government will tackle the issue of immigration.

The new Migration Law

President Boric recently reiterated that there were no privileges for migrants and foreign residents will have to either regularize their migration status or leave. “If they have committed a crime, they need to leave,” he said while also admitting it was necessary to “offer alternatives to those who are in an irregular situation” but that in the end “no one here is going to be above the law.

Under the new bill, illegal migrants can be deemed notified to leave through a registered letter or an email and five days after that, “the person is considered to have been notified,” thus allowing for their expulsion. “Secondly, we have expedited the expulsion procedure that already exists for those who have been convicted under the drug law. We are not going to allow drug trafficking to continue here,” Boric said. But many observers say the new Migration Law could tighten immigration by making it harder to obtain a residence permit from inside the country and allowing authorities to turn back people caught crossing the border illegally.

Chile is one of of South America’s most economically advanced countries, attractive to migrants. Influx of refugees from crisis-ridden Venezuela has led to large-scale influx  that in recent years has shaken the country’s politics. Venezuelans travelling to Chile have to traverse the grueling Atacama Desert, the driest and highest plateau in the world, with temperatures dropping below minus 10 degrees Celsius. There is also the risk of robbery and sexual exploitation by criminal groups. 

Irregular migration is not new to Chile, but from 2010 to July 2021 the number has multiplied by 57, from 415 to more than 23,000 people, mostly Venezuelans, according to the Jesuit Migrant Service. Migrants accounted for just 1 percent of Chile’s population in 1992, but since then nearly 1.5 million immigrants comprising nearly 9 percent of the country’s population. As of July 2022, there were approximately 127,000 migrants who entered Chile through irregular crossing, according to estimates by Chilean authorities.