New initiative allows stranded Chileans and Peruvians to return home

COVID-19

Marcelo Montecinos/The Santiago Times Staff

The Chilean Minister of Foreign Relations, Teodoro Ribera, announced today a repatriation initiative for Chileans and Peruvians that would allow them to return to their respective countries.

The initiative will open up the restrictive measures taken by each government on their shared borders due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The new measures will affect more than 300 Chileans and about 1200 Peruvians.

“It’s an initiative that took a long time to do. Chile is a country that has had its borders open to receive its compatriots, but other countries have adopted more severe policies, mainly to face the pandemic,” commented the Chancellor.

Ribera specified that 114 Chileans stranded in Cusco, Arequipa and Tacna will cross over to Arica by bus while an additional eight would do so by car from today to Wednesday May 27.

Eighty six Argentinians were escorted by police from Peru to Chile and then to the Jama border (Atacama) to cross over to Argentina.

Peruvians stranded in Arica will be going home starting this Saturday until Tuesday 26 of May.

In Pics: Peruvian migrants sleeping outside embassy in Santiago de Chile