At the Chilean-Peruvian border, children also hope to leave

From afar, crying and songs of children’s games are heard. In the middle of the desert, on the so-called Concord Line between Chile and Peru, the most numerous are boys and girls, many of them only months old, who watch the hours go by with their mothers and fathers.

Saraí is traveling with her husband and their one-year-old son. Despite the fact that the child was born in Peru and has Peruvian nationality, the authorities have not allowed them to move forward. “There are many children here, here where we are in the desert. It is not that we do not want anything with Chile, that Peruvians do not want anything with Chile. The Chileans don’t want anything with the Peruvians, but there are Chileans here,” says Saraí.

sick children

After a year and eight months of attempts, the family decided to return to Venezuela. They have been sleeping outdoors for six days and the one who resents it the most is their little son. “Here they are experiencing many needs, more than all the children. Because the children are not eating well and do not want to eat bread. They’re already getting dehydrated, they’re getting sick to their stomachs, they’re vomiting. My son had a fever for two days, ”says this mother with her baby in her arms.

The aid provided by the Chilean government and some human rights organizations is not enough, according to complaints from parents who have already begun to organize themselves. “There are children who have fainted, others who are getting sick to their stomachs. Others who are with other diagnoses, with other pathologies. There were others who were in a wheelchair as well. In other words, there are people here who really have to leave. As they said: why don’t they let the mothers go out and we stay here fighting, but let all the women with their children go out”, Saraí explains.

“Return to our country”

Caroline has been at the border for nine days. Next to her are her husband, her children of one, three and nine years old, as well as her uncle. In Buenaventura, Colombia, her homeland, two more children are waiting for her. “Thank God we are not enduring hunger, but the dust and the sun still affect us,” says Caroline, who managed to live in Chile for two years. “I lost my job, I paid rent, food. I lost my job because I have no papers. What do we have to do? Return to our country,” she asserts.

And in that attempt, today they feel abandoned by all parties: “No one has offered to say: well, we must also help Colombians, Ecuadorians. They only mention Venezuelans and they don’t take us into account, ”he laments.