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The National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) presented this Wednesday an appeal for protection in favor of 23 irregular migrants, of Venezuelan nationality, who were expelled from Chile from the city of Iquique, on the flight that took off from an Air Force base with the presence of the Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Delgado.
In the legal action, the agency denounced that the deportation of the foreigners was carried out “under deception” by the Chilean authorities.
The INDH detailed that the Municipality of Tarapacá issued an expulsion order against each one of those protected on February 8, while they “They were spending the night at the Centenario School in Iquique, Tarapacá region, where they carried out a preventive and mandatory quarantine due to the health crisis “.
The document states that the reason for the trip to Chile of these people was “to seek protection, given the civic, political and economic crisis that their country of origin, Venezuela, is going through, to which is added the crisis caused by the pandemic.” that “exacerbated his problems seriously.”
According to the institute in the appeal, “in the early morning of the day February 09, 2021, at approximately 02:00 hours, Officials from the Chilean Investigative Police (PDI) came to the premises and made all the people who were inside form a line to sign a document. The officials told them that it was a registry of all the people who were there, so all the people proceeded to sign them, even though they were not allowed to read them, and they were also in the dark and unable to see what they signed. “
“After everyone signed,” added the INDH, ” They gave them a copy, at which time they could only realize that they were resolutions that expelled them from the country, thus confirming that they had been deceived by the police officers., who also indicated that they had 24 hours “to complain to the Supreme Court.” In addition to the above, officials at that moment they retained the documents and passports of the protected persons “.
The document adds that during the afternoon of February 9, at approximately 1:00 p.m., “The people found out from the press that they would presumably be expelled from the country at dawn on Wednesday, February 10, 2021, to an undetermined destination, presumably to Venezuela.. In fact, at approximately 6:00 p.m., the police officers stationed at the site began to speak of ‘Operation Deported ‘”.
This Wednesday, Chile expelled a total of 138 irregular migrants of Colombian and Venezuelan nationalities.
“We are in the presence of the first flight that leaves from the north and accounts for an expulsion process, mostly people who entered clandestinely less than three months ago,” said Minister Delgado.
The Interior Minister also anticipated that This is the first flight of many that are articulated for the future.
Minister @RodrigoDelgadoM, together with the ministers @allamand Y @bprokurica, leads expulsion of immigrants https://t.co/N37d1FmdYy
– Min. Interior Chile (@min_interior) February 10, 2021
DEPORTED BROTHER: “THEY WERE MANIPULATED”
The INDH account was reaffirmed by Luis Melendez, a Venezuelan citizen residing in Chile for several years and whose brother, who on January 30 had arrived in Colchane through the Bolivian border, was deported on Wednesday’s flight after spending several days at the Centennial College in Iquique.
“They arrived at 2 in the morning, woke everyone up by telling them to show their documents and demanding that they sign the expulsion. They made them sign the document but without explaining anything at all“Meléndez told Cooperative.
“There was an annex that said that if they wanted to appeal the document, put ‘Yes’, but when they got to that part they (PDI officials) told them ‘say no.’ In that aspect, they manipulated them. I imagine that because of their nervousness and the early morning hours they believed that it was a document to simply get out of that shelter, “he added.
To this is added what was reported in an appeal for protection presented by the National Institute of Human Rights 👇 pic.twitter.com/S70SeifF9b
– Valentina Godoy (@valegodoyb) February 10, 2021
In the opinion of the INDH, “if they are all forcibly returned to Venezuela, they would run a serious risk to their life, integrity or freedom, as will be indicated, also violating in an illegal and flagrant manner, the principle of non-refoulement contained in Law No. 20,430 and in multiple international Human Rights treaties “.
On the other hand, the appeal presented by the INDH indicates that the expulsion orders for the 23 foreigners “not only do they arbitrarily and illegally threaten, disturb and limit the personal freedom of the protected persons, by deriving from them an impediment to entry into the national territory in the event of executing the act of expulsion, but also threaten against the principle of innocence and the fair and rational process, the reunification of the family and other fundamental rights “.
🔴INDH filed an amparo appeal in favor of 23 foreigners https://t.co/uDF2wamq6p
– NHRI Chile (inddhh) February 10, 2021
FOREIGNERS: “OPERATING FULFILLED AND ADJUSTED TO THE LAW”
From the Department of Immigration and Migration (DEM), dependent on the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security, they defend that the expulsion operation “It complied with and adjusted to the procedures established by law.”
“Organizations that work with migrants are in the same way in their right to present legal actions and it will be the courts that will have to pronounce,” they assured from the government agency.
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