E/CN.4/1503
Annex I page 10
30.
A number of
While numbers of Latin American refugees were detained, some of them in the National Stadium along with thousands of Chileans, and the UN High Commissioner addressed an appeal to the new Minister of Foreign Affairs not to return foreign political refugees to their countries of origin, others rapidly turned to embassies and church bodies for help. churches, in co-operation with United Nations
Nations personnel stationed in Chile and the UNHCR Regional Representative (who arrived on the first flight into Santiago after the coup), set up "refugios" or "safe havens", which the Government agreed to sanction as places where refugees could remain inviolate until they were able to leave the country. Even so, many of the refugees did not feel safe until in posession of a "salvo- conducto" a safe conduct document from the Government without which no exit was possible.
-
UNHCR
33.
cour
rese beer eigh
repc
from
197
34.
Ang
fig
lib
int
Bak
197
cip
gov
as a
11
tur
pow
tho
or
31. The ICRC was able,
was able, within a very short time, to send delegates to visit sites where thousands of detainees were being held, though access to certain military detention centres and all interrogation centres was denied them. matter of urgency built up a team to handle the urgent protec- tion and assistance needs of
needs of the foreign refugees. At his Executive Committee meeting in the first week of October, the High Commissioner made an initial appeal for third country resettlement offers. A first planeload, under the responsi- bility of the Swedish Government, left Santiago two weeks later, and within a few weeks more, ICM was moving increasing numbers to the 40 countries which responded to appeals for places.
32. At the same time, Chileans began to pour into Argentina and Peru seeking asylum. Despite the fact that Argentina's accession to the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol bears a reservation limiting the application of these instruments to refugees of European origin, many of the refugees were allowed to settle locally. For many, however, particularly after the 1976 military
1976 military coup in Argentina,
coup in Argentina, third country resettlement proved the only possible solution. Large numbers of Chilean refugees were given visas by other countries of Latin America, notably Mexico
Mexico and Venezuela, while over the ensuing months and years, 14 000 moved to countries of Eastern and Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand with assistance from UNHCR and ICM. Under a prisoner release programme announced by the military government of Chile on the first anniversary of the coup, a number of political detainees were able to leave Chile directly for third countries, with the help of ICRC and ICM.
35.
Mov
for
the
agć
esc
int
cor
MPI
by
mer
36.
ро
bol
in
re
Za:
19
to
es
00
mi
SO
in
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.