On the exacerbation of xenophobia in Chile and its legal use

As members of CLACSO Working Group on Migration and South-South Borders We wish to express our deep concern about the escalating climate of xenophobia and racism in Chile in recent days, a situation that particularly affects the Venezuelan population. We are also concerned about how this climate is being used as justification for pushing back against certain fundamental rights, which could lead to a dangerous undermining of the rule of law.

This occurs within a context where the criminalization of migration and migrants has reached unprecedented levels, fueled by a disastrous confluence of political disputes and irresponsible media coverage. In this context, legislative and policy measures have been adopted that pose a blatant risk of violating the rights, integrity, and dignity of migrants, if not an outright rollback of their increasingly diminished legal protections in the country.

The approval earlier this year of Law No. 21.542, on the Protection of Critical Infrastructure by the Armed Forces, which intensified the militarization of the country's northern border, was recently followed by the expedited processing of an amendment to Law 21.325, on Migration and Foreigners, which seeks to "simplify" the mechanisms for administrative expulsion. Adding to this is the recent announcement by National Prosecutor Ángel Valencia regarding the intention of prosecutors in the Metropolitan Region to request pretrial detention for undocumented foreign nationals who are apprehended, until their identity can be established. This announcement comes amidst public outrage over the murder of the third police officer in 23 days.

This also occurs within the context of slow immigration document processing, which generates a significant number of people in an irregular administrative situation, waiting for the corresponding State institutions to respond to their visa applications or their self-reporting processes for entry through an unauthorized crossing, in order to be granted legal status.

The certainty of respect for our rights is the fundamental pillar that sustains a democratic society. When those who hold power, in its various forms (the State, the media, the market), have the capacity to undermine that certainty for certain groups of the population, turning them into scapegoats for social problems, we open the door to the possibility of reliving dark moments in our history. As the CLACSO Working Group on Migration and South-South Borders, we therefore call for the unrestricted protection of the rights of all people residing in Chilean territory, and we reject any media and political treatment that associates migration with crime, due to the disastrous consequences of this arbitrary link, which have been widely documented.

April 10th 2023
CLACSO Working Group
Migration and South-South borders

This statement expresses the position of the Working Group Migration and South-South borders and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.