SANTIAGO – The government has deported 51 Colombians because they have criminal records, and some of them served prison sentences. “The law warns that no one shall live irregularly in Chile,” interior minister Andrès Chadwick said.
Chile expelled 51 Colombians, who were serving prison sentences or had criminal backgrounds this Thursday. The 48 men and three women were flown out on an Air Force aircraft in response to the immigration policy implemented by Piñera’s government, which states that any person who is with irregular status or has a criminal background must leave.
Interior minister Andrès Chadwick said that 31 of them were deported on judicial expulsion orders, which means that they were serving prison sentences in Chile. The rest are wanted in Colombia for crimes like smuggling, sexual abuse, and murder.
“The law states that no one shall live irregularly in Chile,” said Chadwick, adding that no other deportations are scheduled.
“For the first time, and with the aim of being able to develop a deportation orderly and with lower fiscal cost, we have executed the deportation using an aircraft of the Chilean Air Force, which is flying directly to Colombia and will get back tomorrow,” he said.
Hoy estuvimos en la expulsión de 51 ciudadanos colombianos con órdenes judiciales y que habían cometido delitos en Chile o en su país de origen. La mitad de ellos por tráfico de drogas. Así seguimos cumpliendo el compromiso del pdte. @sebastianpinera de ordenar la casa! pic.twitter.com/m3dg1WnpXV
— Andrés Chadwick P. (@andreschadwickp) August 16, 2018
Days before, general government secretary Cecilia Pérez explained that immigration control comprises three stages. First, the government will extradite all foreigners who are serving a prison sentence in Chile but haven’t been deported yet. Then, the ones who are imprisoned will be extradited when the sentence is over. And the third stage implies the expulsion of all those who didn’t register during the regularization process in April, when some 140,000 immigrants registered.
President Piñera announced in June that around 2,000 illegal immigrants would be deported from Chile as part of the new policy. The Migration Law is aimed at organizing the immigration process, creating the proper conditions so Chile can continue to receive people from abroad.
