The migrant crisis in northern Chile is a period of sharply increased irregular migration across Chile's northern borders with Bolivia and Peru, concentrated in the Tarapacá Region and the Arica and Parinacota Region. Most migrants have been Venezuelans leaving the Venezuelan crisis; Bolivians have been the second-largest group. The Altiplano town of Colchane on the Bolivian border, with about 1,600 residents, became the main point of entry, while the coastal city of Iquique became the main destination for migrants who crossed there.
Irregular crossings rose through the late 2010s and peaked in 2021, when the National Migration Service counted roughly 56,000 entries through unauthorized crossings. The surge overwhelmed Colchane's services, killed a number of migrants who crossed the high desert, and set off protests in Iquique. On 25 September 2021 one protest ended with demonstrators burning migrants' tents and belongings. Authorities also reported that the Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua was trafficking migrants into Chile.
The crisis became a central issue in Chilean politics. Sebastián Piñera's government declared a state of emergency in the north in February 2022. Under Gabriel Boric, Congress passed a law letting the armed forces guard "critical infrastructure," which was used to deploy troops on the border from 2023. After taking office in March 2026, President José Antonio Kast launched the Plan Escudo Fronterizo (Border Shield Plan), which includes trenches, walls and more troops. Official figures show irregular entries falling from the 2021 peak, to 26,275 in 2025. Supporters of tougher controls and their critics disagree about the causes of the decline and about the value of physical barriers.
Background
Chile's foreign-born population grew from about 305,000 (1.8 percent of the population) in 2010 to nearly 1.5 million (7.5 percent) in 2020, according to the Jesuit Migrant Service (SJM). The number of Venezuelans rose from about 8,000 in 2012 to 500,000 in 2020, making them the largest foreign community. Between 2015 and 2017, Venezuelan emigration to Chile increased by 1,388 percent. In 2016 Venezuelans emigrated to Chile because of its stable economy and simple immigration policy. According to the Chilean Department for Foreigners and Migration, the number of Chilean visas for Venezuelans increased from 758 in 2011 to 8,381 in 2016; 90 percent were work visas for Venezuelans aged 20 to 35. Because international travel by air is difficult (especially given the value of the Venezuelan bolívar), many Venezuelans must travel overland through dangerous terrain to reach Chile. According to Catholic Chilean Migration Institute executive secretary Delio Cubides, most Venezuelan immigrants "are accountants, engineers, teachers, the majority of them very well-educated" but accept low-paying jobs so they can meet visa requirements and remain in the country.
Concern about irregular crossings on the northern border predates the 2021 surge. On 8 September 2017, the second government of Michelle Bachelet began digging trenches at crossings near Colchane. They were meant to stop vehicles, not people, from using unauthorized routes. By early 2019 Chile had 1,251,225 immigrants, and Venezuelans had overtaken Peruvians as the second-largest group for the first time. Several formerly small communities, including Venezuelans, Haitians and Colombians, reached unprecedented size, and migration became a major topic of political debate.
In March 2018, soon after taking office, Piñera told Deutsche Welle that Chile would "continue receiving Venezuelans" out of solidarity, recalling that Venezuela had welcomed Chileans during the military dictatorship. His government drafted a new migration law and carried out a regularization process. The Boric administration's migration service later said that about 324,000 people were able to legalize their status under the earlier government. In December 2018 Chile declined to sign the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, saying it was not a human right to migrate, but it did support the Global Compact on Refugees.
Chacalluta, 2019 In mid-2019, as Venezuelans continued to leave their country, a smaller crisis developed at the Chacalluta Border Complex near Arica on the Peruvian border. Opposition politician José Miguel Insulza blamed the government for migrants left stranded there, and migrant organizations warned that a new consular visa requirement for Venezuelans would increase irregularity. The government spokeswoman, Cecilia Pérez, said on 8 July 2019 that Venezuelans would continue to be admitted "until the country can bear it." Politicians on the right split over the response. Senator Felipe Kast urged a humanitarian approach, while his brother, the politician José Antonio Kast, argued that Chile was not obliged to "assume all humanitarian responsibilities." Piñera himself linked rising unemployment to the growth in the workforce caused by immigration.
Border closure, 2020 After Chile entered phase 4 of its COVID-19 response, the government closed all land, sea and air borders to foreign nationals from 18 March 2020. The closure did not stop crossings at Colchane. Migrants who arrived there were housed in schools before being moved to other parts of the country.
Course of the crisis Crossings at Colchane The border crossed by most migrants is arid, cold and lies at about 3,600 meters (11,800 ft) above sea level. Migrants choose this route because the more direct and less harsh route across the Chile–Peru border is better guarded. Human smugglers help migrants make the crossing. By February 2021 the cost for a family to be taken across was between US$200 and US$500. In January 2021 the government said a Colombian company that brought migrants into Chile could be engaged in human trafficking.
On 1 February 2021 the Chilean Army raised an alert when about 300 migrants in an irregular situation, mostly Venezuelans, arrived at the border. By 3 February more than 1,500 migrants were sleeping in the streets of a commune with about 1,600 residents. Colchane's mayor and residents accused some migrants of forcing their way into houses, stealing and occupying public spaces. Of the migrants who arrived, 400 Venezuelans were sent to Iquique to comply with mandatory COVID-19 quarantine. Colchane has no supermarkets, banks or sewer system, and its primary health clinic can treat little more than 10 cases a day. The nearest hospital is 250 kilometers (155 mi) away by a winding, partly unpaved road.
Migrants entering Colchane have had two options: crossing at an unauthorized point, or turning themselves in to police and passing through customs. The second route let them request a stay in a sanitary residence in Iquique, which required three or four nights in Colchane and a negative COVID-19 test. Police then arranged a bus to the city, where migrants could travel on freely.
A second wave arrived in September 2021 and again overwhelmed Colchane's public services. The mayor's office said that 300 to 400 people were crossing daily, many dehydrated or seriously ill after the journey through the mountains. By late October 2021, 16 people had died at the border that year, including a nine-month-old Venezuelan girl. Soldiers guarding the frontier were widely reported to be unable to control the influx.
Iquique Many migrants who crossed at Colchane ended up in Iquique, where an estimated 3,000 were stranded by October 2021. On 24 September 2021 police cleared migrants, including families, who had been camping in Iquique's Plaza Brasil. The central government's representative for Tarapacá said the square had become a focus of "crime such as robbery, prostitution, small-scale drug traffic," with criminals hiding among the people occupying it.
On 25 September 2021, residents marched in Iquique's Plaza Arturo Prat against irregular immigration. Participants criticized immigration policy, said the central government had failed to act, called for the resignation of the regional presidential delegate, Miguel Ángel Quezada, and demanded that the borders be closed. When the march ended, a group of participants set fire to the tents and belongings of foreigners at an improvised camp between Las Rosas street and Avenida Aeropuerto. The Public Ministry opened an investigation to identify and prosecute those responsible. Days later, the Venezuelan ambassador to Chile, Arévalo Méndez, traveled to Iquique to offer migrants free flights home under Venezuela's Back to the Homeland plan. Venezuelan migrants largely rejected the offer.
Anti-immigration demonstrations returned in late January 2022, when truckers' blockades and barricades appeared in Iquique and some protesters again burned migrants' belongings. The protests created friction between Piñera's outgoing government and the incoming government of Boric.
Trafficking and organized crime During the crisis the Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua engaged in trafficking of women from the Bolivian border to Santiago. By October 2021 Chilean authorities were conducting four investigations related to the group. On 24 March 2022 the Investigations Police of Chile (PDI) announced that it had dismantled the group's Chilean branch. One of the members captured had Interpol arrest warrants for murders in Venezuela and Peru, and six other migrant traffickers from the group were also arrested. Reporting in 2023 said the group had nonetheless expanded its operations in Chile. In 2024, Ronald Ojeda, a retired Venezuelan army lieutenant and opponent of Nicolás Maduro who had sought refuge in Chile, was kidnapped and killed in Santiago. The killing was linked to Tren de Aragua.
Scale of irregular entry Figures vary by source and method. According to the Jesuit Migrant Service, 23,673 people entered Chile through clandestine crossings between January and July 2021, about 7,000 more than in all of 2020. PDI data cited by Emol put the same figure at 23,673 for January–July 2021 and identified Bolivians as the second-largest group, with 3,043 entries. By September 2021 an estimated 18,000 Venezuelans and about 3,000 Bolivians had entered through Colchane. Interior Minister Rodrigo Delgado acknowledged that "perhaps more than 25 thousand people" had entered irregularly that year, and the government argued that the 2021 total was only about a tenth of the 2017 figure. The National Migration Service (Sermig) later identified 2021 as the peak, with roughly 56,000 entries through unauthorized crossings.
The government said that detentions at Colchane fell from about 27,000 in 2022 to about 17,000 in 2023. Sermig reported that irregular entries in 2024 were 49 percent below 2021 levels, and its director said they had fallen 37 percent from 2023 and 48 percent from 2022. The 2025 total was 26,275, down 10.2 percent from 2024 and less than half of the 2021 peak. Critics of the Boric government, including former Sermig director Álvaro Bellolio, noted that 131,681 irregular entries were recorded between 2022 and February 2025, nearly double the 2018–2021 period. Official estimates put the number of foreign residents in an irregular situation at about 337,000 in 2023 and early 2026. Chile's total foreign-resident population reached 1,625,074 at the end of 2022 according to Sermig.
Government response Piñera government (2021–2022)