Chilean Border Police agents check migrants who entered Chile illegally from the border with Bolivia at Colchane on February 3, 2022. DIEGO REYES (AFP)
Mauricio González (Santiago de Chile, 63 years old) is known as “the teacher of Colchane”. He came in the late 1980s to teach at the Chilean border crossing, on the border with Bolivia, almost 2,000 kilometers north of the capital. Since then it has witnessed the arrival of electricity, potable water and later the migration crisis that Chile is facing. Colchane, a town of 1,700, was the gateway for thousands of undocumented migrants, mostly Venezuelans. “In this place with no bathrooms or infrastructure, 1,400 people arrived in two days,” he says on the phone. “And when people are freezing and starving, they do everything to save their lives. We already have 27 deaths, we have to do something as a country,” he demands.
The professor from Colchane is one of the protagonists of the documentary film Hope Without Borders made by the Archdiocese of Santiago. The production portrays the desperation of the families and the problems that the wave of erratic income has brought with it. “The situation was critical at the time. These people occupied all sorts of safe havens, they committed criminal acts, threatened people with weapons, stole clothes… it was catastrophic. The police couldn’t handle that many people,” says González. During the pandemic, the professor and his wife, along with a group of nuns, have dedicated themselves to welcoming migrants to the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows, which has been converted into a reception center, where they provide shelter and food to about fifty women and children every day .
The film premiered this Wednesday as part of the announcement of a roundtable involving representatives from the state, the private sector, civil society and international organizations to outline a labor market integration plan for tens of thousands of migrants and refugees over the next three months who now live in Chile. In the last weeks of August they will announce the conclusions of the six planned meetings.
The Archdiocese invited the parish office to draw up a timetable in three months that offers short- and medium-term solutions. “We know this is a challenging goal,” says Luis Berrios, executive secretary of Caritas’ Vicariate for Social Pastoral Care, “but we believe we can meet the country’s needs with the opportunity offered by migrants in jobs that many Chileans do not want to do or where there is a deficit, such as in the medical field, where there is a lack of staff”.
In 2021, almost 50,000 foreigners went to the authorities to voluntarily declare their clandestine entry into Chile. The north is the gateway, but many only stay there until they have enough money to do a PCR and buy a ticket to the capital. “There are many people who do not declare their income, which is why civil society organizations estimate the number to be at least double that,” says Berrios.
The Mayor of Colchane, Javier García, criticized the working table, which was attended by representatives of the Undersecretary of State for Labour, the National Migration Service, the Confederation of Production and Commerce (CPC), the Unitary Central of Workers (CUT), the ILO and others. The working table and the possible solutions they agree on “encourage irregular migration through unauthorized steps and also illegal smuggling,” García said. “What do we do with the migrants and refugees who are already living in our country?” asks Berrios. “If we don’t give them a job opportunity, they are doomed to live on the streets or on welfare, which is unsustainable. And it will not only be a problem for them, but also for all of us,” he warns.
Shortly after taking office, President Gabriel Boric proposed a system of migration quotas modeled on the European Union. “A migration crisis, in this case of more than six million people, particularly from Venezuela, cannot hit one or a group of countries. We must think of Latin American solidarity. Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and also Bolivia have a role to play,” said the President in March.
The migration crisis in Chile has left scenes like the violent episode that took place last September at an anti-immigrant march in Iquique, the capital where Venezuelans move after arriving in Colchane. The protest, attended by around 5,000 people, ended with a huge bonfire in which protesters burned the few belongings of a group of homeless Venezuelans, including mattresses and baby toys.
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