A total of 65 Venezuelan people were expelled from Chile this Friday (05/03/2024) bound for Caracas for committing crimes or violating immigration regulations, according to authorities from the Government of Gabriel Boric.
“People who commit crimes in our country or who enter irregularly will be expelled. They are a minority of foreigners who reside in our country, but it is a minority that does a lot of damage,” said the director of the National Migration Service (SERMIG). from Chile, Luis Eduardo Thayer.
Of the deported people, 55 committed crimes such as robbery with intimidation, robbery with violence, drug trafficking or possession of firearms; The other 10 expulsions were administrative in nature for entering the country through an unauthorized passage.
“We are working to make expulsion processes more effective and improve the capacity of the State,” said Thayer, adding that “greater powers for police and the National Immigration Service” are needed.
More than 400 deportations in four months
So far in 2024, according to data provided by the Government, 411 expulsions have been carried out to different countries, 208 for administrative reasons and 203 by court order.
Judicial expulsion, according to a statement issued by the Chilean Government, is a “substitute penalty” for foreigners who have been sentenced to less than five years and one day and who remain in the country deprived of their liberty, being deported once. that the court has ordered the replacement of the sentence and established a period to execute it. In addition to SERMIG, the Chilean Investigative Police (PDI) participates in this process, “in charge of locating and detaining people to carry out the expulsion and escort them to their countries of origin.”
Colombia, with 155 expulsions, and Venezuela, with 146, are the nationalities with the most expulsions in Chile in the first four months of 2024.
Irregular migration is not a new phenomenon in Chile, but in recent years it has skyrocketed exponentially. Nearly 44,000 people entered irregularly during 2023 through clandestine passages, according to the PDI.
loves (efe, afp)
