Humanitarian corridor can only be viable if immigrants want to return to their country, says Venezuelan lawyer

Pablo Sanchez, a Venezuelan lawyer, spoke about the possibility of creating a humanitarian corridor for immigrants stranded at the border, and specified that this could only work if they wanted to return to their country. Otherwise, he declared, they could not be forced.

“If Venezuelans wish to voluntarily return to Venezuela, this will be permitted by law.. But if the Venezuelans do not want to return to Venezuela, which is also very possible, then you cannot force them to be put on a plane and returned to the country. Humanitarian air channels can only be activated if the Venezuelans want to voluntarily return,” he said. News extension.

“Without a doubt, the solution is not to expel them from Chile or any other Latin American country.. And this is for humanitarian reasons. In international humanitarian law, in human rights, there is the principle of non-refoulement, which is that no state, in accordance with the Geneva Convention, can jeopardize the situation of a person who is already in a state of vulnerability,” he added.

He also mentioned that what is currently happening is a “humanitarian crisis” and that it will be the largest in the history of Latin America.

“There is a Latin American humanitarian crisis going on. And what really happened was that at the beginning Latin America was not concerned about the situation in Venezuela, now Venezuela has gone to Latin America across the borders. This is the largest border migration in the history of the continent.”, he asserted.

Former National Superintendent of Migration Explains Migration Crisis

Jorge Fernandez, former National Superintendent for Migration, explained the circumstances that led to the current migration crisis and pointed out that the beginning is in the government of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

“At the beginning of the Venezuelan migration, people were given conditions to enter and get residency documents. It made it Peter Paul Kuczynski. Then, given the increase in the migration flow, they began to demand a passport. This document became a requirement for entry into Peru. Then they demanded a passport and, in addition, a visa. This meant that many citizens who came from the north had neither a passport nor a visa, which facilitated the smuggling of migrants,” he stressed.

“In order to enter Peru, many of these Venezuelan migrants have opted for a form of asylum that is typical of international agreements that allow them to enter Peru upon request from the Foreign Ministry. This is why Peru is today the country with the highest number of asylum requests in the world, and not because 600,000 Venezuelans who have applied for asylum are being persecuted in their country. Probably only 0.1% get access to a shelter. And the rest will be of a humanitarian and migration nature,” he concluded.