The others stranded: foreigners who have their family here and ask to be allowed in

2021-07-30T09:51:28.961Z

They demand the reestablishment of a provision that had allowed family reunifications since November and was suspended since the end of June. The stories.

07/30/2021 6:00 AM

Clarín.com
Society

Updated 07/30/2021 6:00 AM

The quota to enter the country of 600 people by air has been increased in recent weeks to 1,000.

But since the end of June, when the restriction was imposed,

family reunifications were

also

suspended,

and yet there were no updates on that measure.

Parents, children and couples estranged by the government decision insist on the relaxation of the limitations

to see each other again.

Carla - she is not called like that but asks to appear with another name - will not be reunited immediately with her husband. The Air France flight that would have brought him back to Argentina was canceled a month ago.

"They don't allow him to come back to me, even when we're married,"

she says. Her husband

is French

but their lives are in Argentina.

"He is in France because he applied for a scholarship at an art school in Lyon. In August 2020 he traveled, I visited him in December and now he had to return, but when the flight was suspended

we do not know when he will return,"

he complains . There is a concept that violates Carla:

"He is not stranded. He is different

. Nobody understands him or listens to us. They see him

as a foreigner or as a tourist

and not as my relative and they forbid him to enter."

In November 2020, the National Directorate of Migration authorized the entry into the country of

non-resident foreigners who were direct relatives of Argentine citizens.

The decision was framed in

provision 3763.

Today hundreds of Argentines and residents demand that the Executive branch restore this provision, which was suspended at the end of June, when entry into the country from abroad was limited.

Natalia Gilabert (42) and SamLive with her partner in Argentina, but he is not yet a resident.

Sam has to travel to his country because of a family problem

"We are in favor of epidemiological care. What we do not want is to be in the same category as any foreigner who enters Argentina for tourism," says Natalia Gilabert.

His story and that of his partner Sam was told in Clarín in mid-July.

Since then

few were the news.

Sam is American.

He lives in Argentina with Natalia and her two children.

He has his daughter, who is ill, in California.

"We live in a situation of terror. He has to go yes or yes to see his daughter. But he

fears he will not be able to return,"

says Natalia.

Last Friday Sam had an interview to process a precarious residence in Argentina. The permit lasts for three months. "In addition to the suspension of family reunification, on July 15 the possibility for

foreigners to renew their precarious residence from abroad

was annulled

That option existed due to the exceptionality of the pandemic but it was also

canceled

. What will happen if Can't Sam come back or renew his precarious residence from the United States? They canceled all our options. "

Carla and Natalia are part of the

Love Is Not Tourism collective

("Love is not tourism", in Spanish). The global initiative was born in Europe in July 2020 and within a few months it reached Argentina. At first, it brought together couples and families who were separated by the simultaneous closure of borders to prevent the advance of the pandemic. Since the end of June, it has brought together Argentines and residents affected by the limitations decreed by Migrations to stop the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

"We do not appear in the statistics but we are

a group full of pain and separation,"

adds Natalia, who estimates that there are around

4,500 people in a similar situation.

Natalia complains against what she considers a cruel authorization system.

He questions whether the reunion should be justified with the most serious illness or with a matter of life and death.

"We have the

right to be with our families

, it is a human right."

Laura Almazo waits at least for her mother to enter the country to accompany her in the birth of her first child.

Photo: Maxi Failla

Laura Almazo has a due date for August 4.

She had planned to live the last stage of her pregnancy and the first months of the birth of her child with her parents.

But that organization was canceled when

the flight from Bogotá to Buenos Aires,

dated July 10, was suspended.

Her husband is a doctor.

He works in a hospital and in a clinic in the south of Buenos Aires.

"It has 24-hour guards on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Thursday. Four days out of seven I am alone. That is why

we had arranged for my parents to be there," she

explains.

His situation had also been told in

Clarín

but it still remains unresolved.

Laura and her husband are Colombians with

permanent residence in the country.

Five years ago, Laura came to the City of Buenos Aires to pursue a master's degree in public policy at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO). In Buenos Aires he met his partner and here they got married. They live in a rented apartment in Recoleta.

When the flight from Bogotá to Buenos Aires was suspended, Laura consulted the National Directorate of Migration. There they explained that the family visit to Argentine citizens or foreign residents in the country had been annulled by administrative decision 643/2021 and provision 1798/2021 that introduced changes to the conditions of entry to Argentina. They also told him that any

exceptional situation

should be channeled through the Argentine consulate from where the person departed, in this case his parents.

"Then I contacted the Argentine consulate in Bogotá and presented all the papers - clinical history, medical certificate of pregnancy and company requirement, proof of who my parents are, a copy of their passport and a copy of my document - to request the exception of income for humanitarian reasons ".

But in the last hours the request was denied for

not applying with the exception category

"It is reported that at the moment only requests are being carried out where life or the integrity of people is at risk," they replied.

One week after delivery, Laura still hopes that at least her mother can enter the country.

This Monday after publishing a tweet in which he tagged the account of Casa Rosada and the head of the National Directorate of Migration, Florencia Carignano, he received a communication by private message.

From Carignano's account, they asked him in which consulate he had initiated the request and informed him that they would contact the Foreign Ministry.

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