Settlements in Chile grow more than 33% in two years

Settlements in Chile grew by 33.1% in the last two years and are inhabited by more than 113,000 families, a third of which are immigrants, according to a study by an organization that works with people who live in precarious houses.

Chile has a deficit of more than 650,000 homes and President Gabriel Boric has set himself the goal of building 260,000 by the end of his term in 2026. Added to the lack of homes are some 2,450 that were destroyed by forest fires in February.

The cadastre of the Techo-Chile study specified on Tuesday that in the South American country there are 1,290 camps where 34.7% of the precarious homes are inhabited by immigrant families. According to the report, 74.8% of the families came to live in the settlement due to the high cost of rent.

The director of the Techo-Chile Study Center, Pía Palacios, declared that the increase in camps “is one more form of housing exclusion” in Chile.

In four regions of the extreme north of Chile, characterized by a very adverse climate due to the Atacama desert, the driest in the world, there are just over 30,000 families.

Most immigrants enter Chile through irregular crossings located on the border with Peru and Bolivia, where the At the end of February, the government deployed a military contingent to stop immigration.

Unlike the work of accompanying the police that they carried out before February, the military are now empowered to carry out identity and baggage controls and to detain and hand over to the police, within a maximum period of 24 hours, foreigners who They suspect that they are committing crimes.

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