Migrants trapped after Bolivia closes border
SANTIAGO: More than a thousand mainly Bolivian migrants are stranded near Chile’s northern border, after informal labour sources in their host country dried up but they could not return home because of shutdowns, refugee groups and both governments have confirmed.
The migrants have been gathering for the past two weeks after Bolivia progressively tightened its border after allowing some returnees into quarantine within the country.
Now, about 800 people are being housed in a disused school in the northern Chilean city of Iquique, while another 300 are waiting in a bus station in Antofagasta, another major city, Chilean authorities and refugee groups say, after several thwarted attempts to cross. Most are Bolivians, but some Peruvians are also seeking to return home.
Refugee groups say 250 more people are sleeping outside the Bolivian consulate in Iquique and more people are heading north from the Chilean capital, Santiago.
On Thursday the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet urged countries in Latin America to open their borders to their own nationals.
‘‘Under international law, everyone has the right to return to their home country — even during a pandemic,’’ she said.
Bolivia’s foreign ministry said yesterday it would be making an announcement ‘‘in the coming hours’’ about the situation.
Chile’s foreign minister Teodoro Ribera said later yesterday that Bolivia had agreed to reopen its border to some returnees tomorrow and on Monday.
He said the two countries had negotiated that the migrants’ time in the care of the Chilean authorities in Iquique and Antofagasta could be counted as quarantine and discounted from time they would spend under observation on the other side of the border before returning to their homes. — Reuters