Photos: Migrants persist despite Chile rejecting UN Migration pact
Updated On Dec 18, 2018 01:15 PM IST
Chile is among the 29 countries that have refused to sign the UN Migration Pact arguing that it undermines their sovereignty. Global attention has largely been on Central American caravan at the US-Mexico border, but Chile and other comparatively wealthy Latin American nations are absorbing another wave of mass migration from destitute nations in the region such as Haiti and Venezuela. Immigration into Chile has increased sixfold in less than 30 years, from 114,500 in 1992, to 746,465 last year along with a spike in illegal migration.
1 / 11
Updated on Dec 18, 2018 01:15 PM IST
In the pitch black of the moonless Chilean desert night, the Cuban man is hard to spot until he is within yards of the border. Placing a small backpack of clothes on the ground, Yoniel Torres, 31, a father of two, puts his hands up as police approach with flashlights and take him into custody. (Ivan Alvarado / REUTERS)
2 / 11
Updated on Dec 18, 2018 01:15 PM IST
Torres handcuffed after being detained by the police. “A coyote (people trafficker) left me near (the Peruvian border town of) Tacna and told me to follow the old railway line,” Torres told Reuters as he was led away. “This is all horrible. The journey was so hard. I just came in search of a better life.” Scenes like this are replicated every day along Chile’s long land border. (Ivan Alvarado / REUTERS)
3 / 11
Updated on Dec 18, 2018 01:15 PM IST
Mislady Herrera who was detained by the police is transported to an immigration office. The country is hardening its stance towards immigration, and refused to sign a United Nations migration pact last week aimed at improving migrant integration and protection. (Ivan Alvarado / REUTERS)
4 / 11
Updated on Dec 18, 2018 01:15 PM IST
Venezuelan migrant Enrique Miller, 44, takes a picture of customers at a restaurant where mainly migrants work, in Arica. Global attention largely falls on Mediterranean Sea crossings and the Central American caravan. But Chile and other comparatively wealthy Latin American nations are absorbing another wave from destitute nations in the region such as Haiti and Venezuela. (Ivan Alvarado / REUTERS)
5 / 11
Updated on Dec 18, 2018 01:15 PM IST
Migrants’ footprints are inspected during a police patrol at a restricted mined area of desert. Some migrants, like Torres, travel up to 9,000 km by air and land to get as far as Chile. The country has the highest GDP per capita in South America, low levels of corruption and the lowest murder rate, according to figures from the World Bank and InSight Crime, a foundation analysing organized crime. (Ivan Alvarado / REUTERS)
6 / 11
Updated on Dec 18, 2018 01:15 PM IST
Undocumented Bolivian migrant Elvis, 40, uses a mobile phone after work, near Arica. To reach the country migrants endure Amazonian humidity, extreme temperatures and high altitudes in the deserts between Peru, Bolivia and Chile. Immigration into Chile has increased sixfold in less than 30 years, from 114,500 in the 1992 census, to 746,465 last year. (Ivan Alvarado / REUTERS)
7 / 11
Updated on Dec 18, 2018 01:15 PM IST
Policemen inspect an empty building used by migrants to shelter themselves after avoiding frontier check points. There has also been a spike in illegal migration. In the dusty Arica region at Peru’s southern border, Chilean police say they caught more than 2,200 foreigners attempting to enter the country illegally between January and November, up 80% from last year. (Ivan Alvarado / REUTERS)
8 / 11
Updated on Dec 18, 2018 01:15 PM IST
Haitian migrant Stephane, 19, hides his face, posing for a picture at a house in the Cherro Chuno neighbourhood. Guided in many cases by traffickers paid as much as $3,000, police say, the migrants cross in remote areas to avoid border guards, risking a fatal encounter with landmines planted on the frontier decades ago on the orders of former dictator Augusto Pinochet. (Ivan Alvarado / REUTERS)
9 / 11
Updated on Dec 18, 2018 01:15 PM IST
An effigy on a fence next to a banner reads “No more robberies. People caught stealing will be burned. Community justice”. Javiera Lopez, Arica’s chief prosecutor, said migrants often suffer sexual assault and robberies. “There are scars that might never heal, not only from the journey but also once in Chile because they find the situation is totally different to the one they thought they would find,” he said. (Ivan Alvarado / REUTERS)
10 / 11
Updated on Dec 18, 2018 01:15 PM IST
Migrants Amelia, 40, and Ramiro, 39, collect their stuff after washing clothes where they work at the Chilean and Peruvian border. Those who make it to Chile often live a precarious existence. Haitians, Dominicans and Bolivians live cheek by jowl in tumbledown neighbourhoods, scraping together a living working in restaurants and mines. Racism and job discrimination is common. (Ivan Alvarado / REUTERS)
11 / 11
Updated on Dec 18, 2018 01:15 PM IST