About 450 migrants, most of them Haitians, spent six days stranded on Wednesday trying unsuccessfully to enter Peru from Brazil via an Amazon border bridge guarded by the army and police, an AFP reporter noted.
Peruvian soldiers are preventing them from crossing the Acre Integration Bridge due to the fact that in Peru, since the end of January, the entry of travelers from Brazil, the United Kingdom and South Africa, countries where new more aggressive covid-19 strains have been detected, was banned.
The Peruvian Catholic Church is advocating for a solution for these travelers.
The binational bridge, inaugurated in 2006, 240 meters long across the Acre River, is located in the remote region of the Peruvian jungle Madre de Dios, 1000 km east of Lima, in the triple border area between Brazil, Peru and Bolivia.
Migrants, including women and children, ensure that they only need a transit permit in Peru, as their destination is Ecuador, the United States or their respective countries. For now, I sleep in tents and schools in the city of Assis, on the Brazilian side of the border.
Hundreds of migrants crossed the bridge illegally on Tuesday, crossing the Peruvian uniforms that guarded it, but were returned to Brazilian territory, said the Joint Command of the Peruvian Armed Forces.
“Ten people from the group of immigrants remain in Peru, because when the tests were performed, they tested positive for covid-19,” for which they were admitted to the local health clinic, the military command said in a statement .
On the Peruvian side is the city of Iñapari, with 1,500 inhabitants, located 200 km north of Puerto Maldonado, the head of the Madre de Dios region, visited by Pope Francis during his visit to Peru in January 2018.
The bridge is part of a binational highway completed in 2010.
The apostolic vicariate (equivalent to a diocese) in Puerto Maldonado on Monday called on the Peruvian authorities to find a solution that would allow them to “continue on their way” and thus avoid a “serious social conflict.”
Although most migrants come from Haiti, there are also from Senegal, Burkina Faso, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India and “have to enter Peru to travel to the Tumbes region, on the border with Ecuador and from there to reach their destinations. those destinations “, added the vicariate.
He stressed that these migrants “do not ask for social assistance from our country” because they can pay for their transport to reach the Ecuadorian border.