Chilean health authorities reported on Thursday that they will vaccinate migrants in an irregular situation, contrary to what was announced by the Government on Wednesday and after a wave of criticism from various advocacy and human rights organizations.
“All foreigners in Chile will be vaccinated, but we will not promote tourism with vaccines,” Health Minister Enrique Paris told a news conference.
The chancellor, Andrés Allamand, had stated the day before that both tourists and irregular migrants who had not begun the process of normalizing their situation in the country would not be included in the vaccination plan.
However, and after the controversy it provoked, Minister Paris reiterated that the vaccine, which is free and voluntary, will be available “to all those who are on the national territory”, except those who entered as tourists. .
The head of the Immigration Department, Álvaro Bellolio, also explained to the local press that “migrants who are illegally in Chile are Fonasa A (a basic and universal health coverage plan for those with fewer economic resources), because they have access to vaccination. “
The agility with which Chile conducts the immunization process against covid-19 against the rest of Latin American countries has led several foreign media and numerous Internet users to disseminate information on how to get to Chile to obtain the vaccine.
Two days after a Peruvian television station announced that “there are a thousand ways to vaccinate in Chile” and reported on various ways to get to the country to be inoculated, the Chilean government wanted to change the immunization plan for Chile. to avoid the so-called “covid tourism”.
VACCINATION WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION
The government’s initial decision, which was not to immunize tourists or irregular migrants, left thousands of foreigners without vaccines who have entered the border with Bolivia in recent weeks and are stranded in pre-quarantined health camps, as well as many 1.5 million migrants living in the country.
“We call for the correction and maintenance of the historical culture of Chilean public health, offering protection to the migrant population regardless of their immigration status,” the president of the Medical College, Izkia Siches, posted on Wednesday.
America’s director of Amnesty International, Erika Guevara, similarly stated that “neither Chile nor any other country will emerge quickly or satisfactorily from this crisis if health services are not provided to all people without discrimination.”
Chile, which has added more than 760,000 infections since March and nearly 20,000 deaths, has vaccinated more than 1.3 million people with at least one dose after a week of mass immunization, especially health workers and the elderly.
The country, which has approved Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines, has employed more than 35 million doses from various laboratories.
The Government’s goal is to inoculate the entire population at risk – five million people among the elderly, the chronically ill, medical staff in the first quarter of 2021 and the rest before June.