IOM Chile, UNHCR Chile, UNICEF Chile, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the United States Department of State visited Fundación Scalabrini in Arica, Chile.

Arica, Chile, September 9, 2023 – With great pleasure, on September 8 of this year, the Scalabrini Foundation in Arica, working in partnership with the Scalabrini International Migration Network (SIMN), received a visit from the Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants (R4V) in the company of the delegate of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the United States Department of State, the main sponsor of the work carried out by IOM and UNHCR in Chile.

During their visit to the Arica Mission, the program being implemented with support from the State, called Family Residence, and the dynamics that have been developing in attention to the migrant and refugee population were announced. These actions are contemplated in the process of integration into the territory of migrant families with the presence of children and adolescents, which are suggested in the Technical Guidelines of the Ministry of Social Development and Family, but always identifying with the Scalabrinian spirit in each of them.

It was a moment that allowed us to demonstrate the work that continues to be carried out between IOM and UNHCR since the beginning of this work in Arica, but also highlighting the partnership that has always been maintained between our institutions.

In this sense and considering the relevant role of cooperative and coordinated work between civil society organizations, international organizations and the State, it is appropriate to make visible the work in migration management in Arica by sharing good practices and experience in the implementation of shelter for migrants, refugees, and families.

Resilience, innovation in responses and empathy in attention to the various migratory flows and profiles have generated successful participation in the intervention with the subject in their migratory process.

A great challenge also arises in identifying the needs of working with UNICEF in caring for the migrant Child and Youth population, a group that currently represents approximately 50% of the population in human mobility.