They condemn hate speech towards migrants in Iquique, Chile | News

The Network of Migrant Journalists in Chile condemned hate speech and denounced situations of threats and attacks against the press and migrants, given the rise in violence in the Iquique region.

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“Faced with the situations of public order and security, evidenced in recent days in Iquique, once again the information without a rigorous analysis in the media, added to the rapid spread of hate speech on social networks; and the insufficient public management of migration, at the local, national and international levels, has served as an incentive for ultra-nationalist groups to call for anti-migrant marches,” the organization stressed.

Similarly, he said that this mobilization has caused "an escalation of violence against vulnerable groups of migrants and asylum seekers, who continue to arrive mostly through the northern borders and unauthorized crossings."

The entity said that the criminalization of the immigrant population has transcended the local authorities, who, by requesting measures from the Government, have influenced a climate of stigmatization and persecution.

For its part, the National Network of Migrant and Pro-Migrant Organizations, also took a stand in this regard through a statement, in which it stressed that by acknowledging "that in the face of the annoyance felt by the people of Iquique, conservative and far-right forces incite people - with hate speech - to link migration and crime”.

Similarly, the group specified that crime also affects migrants, with their trafficking networks; and that in the name of mobilizing against crime, these fascist forces attack isolated migrants in groups, destroy their few belongings, and "use the migratory phenomenon to justify a crime that is not properly repressed and that has no nationality."

Indicators that raise alarms

Accurate information provided by local media that the Tarapacá prosecutor, Raúl Arancibia, had reported that in 2021 homicides rose 183 percent. Added to the 42 percent rise in drug trafficking, the 501 percent increase in migrant smuggling. In the same way, he referred to a 124 percent rise in carrying a sharp weapon, and 18 percent in robberies with violence and intimidation.

In the demonstration on Sunday with the justification that migrants are the cause of the violence in Iquique, xenophobic messages were broadcast and homes and spaces occupied by migrants were razed under the complicity of the carabineros.

At the end of September 2021, there was also a wave of violence, which ended in aggression against groups of migrants who were in public spaces in Chile and, as the Network of Migrant Journalists in Chile stated, "today it returns under the same discourse of security and order”.

Similarly, the expert on migration issues, Julissa Mantilla, specified in September 2021 that "nothing justifies violence or xenophobia and it is the responsibility of States to act with due diligence in compliance with their international obligations, especially in the case of migrants."

"Dignity is the basis of human rights and does not depend on a visa," Julissa Mantilla stressed.