Immigrants at the Chacalluta border control would have to process their documents at the Chilean consulate in Tacna, fewer than 25 miles north of the site.
In a June 24 statement, the Arica diocese said that among the 700 people at the crossing, "lamentably there are children of all ages who urgently need better care, pregnant women, sick people suffering from inclement weather out in the open, unable to resolve their migration problems."
That day Bishop Moisés Carlos Atisha Contreras, along with his vicar general, Mauricio Cáceres, and Fr. Isaldo Bettin, head of the Chilean Catholic Institute for Migration in Arica, went to the site to "see firsthand the situation experienced by our Venezuelan brothers and sisters."
"We talked with the central and local government authorities, but the most important thing was to listen to the stories of those affected and to pray with them so that humanitarian solutions with concrete actions could be sought as soon as possible."
"We have to understand the migration reality in the world from principles of humanity, and we are constantly challenged as a society to look for ways to treat people with the dignity proper to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thus we put into practice what the Gospel mandates, 'I was a migrant [sic] and you welcomed me.'"
The statement noted that the government authorized the entrance of families with underage children, while institutions such as INCAMI, the Jesuit Migrant Service, the National Human Rights Institute, the Scalabrini Foundation and other migrant associations, consulates, and individuals are providing humanitarian aid.