Tuesday, Carlos Appelgren, the Director General of Consular and Immigration Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile, who answered questions from the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies about the Haitian migration and the obligation of a visa for the Haitians that the Government is studying, to enter Chile revealed that between January 1 and July 26, 2017, 44,289 Haitians entered the Chilean territory (source: Chilean judicial police).

For the 12 months of 2016, this number stood at 43,898, an increase of almost 75% this year (in linear projection).

Appelgren told deputies that because of the very large increase in the migration of Haitian nationals, better control is needed for those who claim to be tourists when they arrive, while they intend to stay and work in Haiti. Chile, recalling that if their intention is to work in Chile, there is a visa to this effect.

In addition, Appelgren indicated that, according to investrigations carried out in Haiti, networks of traffickers encourage Haitians to migrate to Chile and scam them several thousand US dollars to bring them to Chile... As soon as they arrive, these Haitians are often victims of thefts by accomplices of these traffickers, before realizing that they were deceived and paid dearly for false documents or unnecessary documents.

SL/ HaitiLibre