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migrants enter Chile across the pampas (farmland) near the Santa Rosa-Chacalluta border
crossing; this route is also said to be used for smuggling goods and drugs. The Special
Rapporteur was told there are mined areas in the Chilean sector,9 which would involve an
additional risk to illegal migrants using this border; for this reason clandestine entry to Chile
from Tacna is sometimes effected through Bolivia, where border controls are less stringent. It
appears that some Peruvians enter Chile with their identity document and once in Arica present a
passport with a bogus entry stamp previously obtained in Tacna. In Arica, migrant-smugglers
operate in the bus terminal, charging between US$ 1,500 and 4,000 for clandestine passage
through the second checkpoint, while some bus drivers are said to charge about US$ 100 to
include illegal migrants on the lists of passengers whose papers are in order.
28.
According to information received, on 25 January 2004 the Arica Port Authority
informed the Consulate-General of Peru in the city about an incident that had taken place in the
vicinity of the Chilean lighthouse adjacent to boundary marker No. 1 at the border between the
two countries, and had resulted in the death of an undocumented citizen, presumably of Peruvian
nationality, who was shot several times as he attempted to enter Chilean territory. The injured
man was taken to the Juan Noe hospital in Arica, to which the Peruvian consul immediately went
in order to give him the necessary support and assistance. A few hours later, the Chilean
authorities reported that the presumed Peruvian citizen had died. Without prejudice to the results
of the investigation and identification of the dead man, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru
expressed its surprise and disapproval at the disproportionate use of force by the members of the
Chilean navy manning the guard post, and requested, through the Peruvian consular office in
Arica and the Chilean Embassy in Lima, a thorough investigation in order to elucidate the facts,
determine who was responsible and, if necessary, apply the appropriate sanctions.10
29.
Peruvians in an irregular situation intercepted by Chilean plain-clothes police officers are
held in administrative detention centres and expelled as a group from Arica. The Peruvian
consuls in Arica and Iquique told the Special Rapporteur that their compatriots only went to the
consular offices when they had a problem and that they appeared to be somewhat afraid of the
consular authorities. The consulates in Arica and Iquique had intervened in several cases of
sexual abuse against Peruvian women who had allegedly been lured with false offers of work
and then faced arbitrary decisions by Chilean border officials concerning the travel money
requirement. Peruvian migrant workers in Tacna and Iquique rarely reported physical attacks or
unpaid wages to their consulates, but when they did, their complaints were transmitted to the
prefect. The Special Rapporteur was informed that persons who were expelled or deported were
often not accompanied to the border following identification but were taken by regular bus
services to Tacna, thus avoiding intervention by the Peruvian authorities.
30.
Itinerant traders and small retailers11 told the Special Rapporteur that the Peruvian
consular authorities did not defend their rights when they were the object of frequent racist and
xenophobic attacks by gangs of violent youths in Arica, to the apparent indifference of the
population.
The Triple-border region between Brazil, Colombia and Peru
31.
The Human Rights Commission of the Apostolic Vicariate of San José del Amazonas
informed the Special Rapporteur about movements of migrants along the border between Peru,
Brazil and Colombia, which Peruvians from different parts of the country arrive at on their way