More than 100 Haitians protested outside their country’s embassy in Santiago on Saturday, with some entering the building, in a demonstration over difficulties and irregularities in obtaining criminal record certificates needed to regularize their immigration status in Chile.
Chilean police responded after protesters entered the embassy premises in the capital’s Providencia district, according to local media reports. Organizers said around 500 people had gone to the embassy seeking the certificates, with many turned away despite expecting to receive them.
David Antoine, a spokesperson for Chile’s Haitian community, described the situation as “very worrying and shameful,” saying many applicants were being rejected without clear explanation. One protester said demonstrators were only seeking criminal record certificates from Haiti and were asking the embassy to clarify when the documents would become available.
The certificates are required by Chile’s National Migration Service as part of the process for Haitian nationals to regularize their immigration status in the country. Haiti has a sizeable diaspora in Chile, built up over more than a decade after many Haitians left following the 2010 earthquake, though numbers have declined in recent years amid tighter Chilean immigration rules and reports of discrimination faced by migrants.
Saturday’s protest adds to a string of demonstrations by Haitian migrants outside their embassy in Santiago in recent years over document delays, as Chile’s immigration policy remains a politically sensitive issue ahead of upcoming elections.
