Chile on Sunday passed a new immigration law that will facilitate the administrative expulsion of immigrants.
“The main goal of this new migration law is to put our house in order through an orderly, safe and regular migration policy that allows legal migration and combats illegal immigration,” President Sebastián Piñera said during the adoption.
The new standard replaces an existing one from 1975.
If, under the previous law, a foreigner could arrive in Chile as a tourist and then change his situation with a worker in the country, this cannot be done with the new regulations.
The new law “allows foreigners who want to come to Chile to do so by telling the truth about their intentions, avoiding deception and abuse,” so they will have to apply for a visa before arriving in the country, Piñera said.
In addition, the regulations “facilitate the administrative expulsion of migrants entering Chile illegally, through clandestine measures, without complying with our laws or validating criminal records,” the president continued, lamenting that at least five people have lost their lives. this year at the illegal northern border crossing points.
“We do not want organized crime, drug trafficking, smuggling, trafficking and human trafficking or those who do not comply with our laws to enter our country,” he added.
The regulations were processed for a period of eight years and taken to the Constitutional Court, which removed six articles, including one calling for the facilitation of the assisted return of children entering the country alone, which was declared unconstitutional.
Chile was denounced this week by Amnesty International, claiming that the new project “could reduce migrants’ opportunities to regularize their legal status once they are in Chile and undermines the principle of non-refoulement”, as it was irregularly expelled in Chile. February, especially Venezuelans and Colombians, while court decisions were still being processed, he said.
The national coordinator of migrants categorically rejected the new law.
“It will cause profound damage not only to those currently subjected to forced migration in the region, but also to the entire migrant population already living in the country,” said its president, Vanessa González.