MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine Human Rights Secretary agrees “stronger immigration controls” necessary

Argentine Human Rights Secretary Claudio Avruj

Argentina's Human Rights Scecretary Claudio Avruj agreed with Senator Pichetto, saying that “stronger controls” are needed. During the previous administration, people entered the country without a proper background check.

 “We agree with the statements of Miguel Angel Pichetto on immigration,” Avruj said Sunday. In recent years, the controls required by law were not carried out,“ he explained .

Avruj said that President Mauricio Macri's administration ”agrees“ on the importance of immigration, but noted that at first ”we need to start by focusing on our internal problem of crime immigration.“

Pichetto, chairman of the Kirchnerite PJ-FPV bloc in the Senate, called last week for an end on naivety regarding immigration: ”How much misery can hold Argentina receiving poor immigrants?“
The Senator had underlined that ”Argentina has to control the immigration [flow], which is very complex and for which there is no reciprocity.“

”There are 35,000 Colombians studying at [tuition free] Argentine universities, while in Colombia there are a thousand Argentines who are unable to study because college is to be paid for.“ A recent TV report in mid October revealed that Argentina spends $ 360 million a year in favour of foreign college students.

He also quoted a public hospital doctor as telling him there were no appointments available for the entire month of November because of Paraguayans travelling into Buenos Aires to get cost-free surgery.

”We have to stop being silly,“ Pichetto said. The problem is that we function as a social adjustment tool for crime in Bolivia and Peru,” said Pichetto. “Peru solved their problem of security and transferred it all to the trafficking scheme: the main shantytowns in Argentina are taken over by Peruvians. We have no control over immigration.”

“One of Argentina's problems is the egalitarian culture, in the form of what is politically correct as depicted by the media,” he said.

Avruj Sunday anticipated that the Government will “strengthen controls” to “take care of those immigrants” who come “in good faith” to the country and always within the framework of the law.