Chilean authorities detected two Cuban immigrants in irregular situations during a large-scale foreigner control operation in the Los Ríos region the previous week.
Cubans are among about 60 citizens of various nationalities who do not have legal status in Chile and were discovered by officials from the Migration Department and the International Police of the PDI (Investigations Police) of Valdivia and Los Ríos, during an inspection carried out between July 8 and 12.
According to a statement released by local media, checks were carried out on 110 foreigners, 58 of whom were undocumented. In addition to the two Cubans, 22 immigrants from Venezuela, 14 from Ecuador, eight from China, four from Colombia, three from Haiti, and one each from Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic were identified. The news outlets that reported the news also included two Chileans in the group.
The offenders were reported to the corresponding administrative authority for infringing upon articles of Law 21.325 related to clandestine entry into the national territory through an unauthorized crossing, staying irregularly in the country, or providing employment to a foreign citizen without documentation, stated Subprefect Darwin Gutiérrez, head of the Immigration and International Police Department of the PDI Valdivia.
The official explained that this department "regularly carries out inspections and controls on foreign residents either permanently or sporadically in the country, specifically in our Los Ríos region, under Law 21.325, which regulates their stay."
A large community of Cubans has settled in Chile, many of them arriving in the last three years, as part of the largest migratory exodus in Cuba's history.
But the arrival of Cuban migrants to the South American country has a longer history. According to statistics from the Investigations Police of Chile, 2,078 Cubans entered illegally in the first five months of 2018, a figure that represented 65% of the total number of immigrants who entered the austral nation in that period.
By mid that year, 5,451 people had legalized their migratory status in Chile.
In 2019, the Court of Appeals of that country ruled in favor of a protection appeal filed by 23 Cuban migrants, and ordered the Provincial Government of Arica to formalize their asylum requests.
Last year, at least a dozen Cuban athletes left the national delegation that participated in the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile from October 20 to November 5 and began procedures to request asylum.
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