'Binational couples and families feel invisible to the State'

Cesar Dossi

08/08/2021 7:56 AM

• Clarín.com

• Letters to the country

Updated 08/08/2021 7:56 AM

In this space we want to tell who we are and our current situation.

We are a group of

residents

from

Argentina and foreigners who have a foreign family

, that is: husband, wife, partner, children, brothers or foreign parents.

These people - nothing more and nothing less than our family - were

prohibited from entering Argentina

since June 25 of this year when family reunification was totally suspended through Provision 1798/2021 of the National Directorate of Migration.

Last Thursday it was announced

the resumption of family reunification, allowing binational couples and families to reunite in Argentine territory.

Although the measure relieves us and makes us very happy, because if in theory and according to the written norm our family can return, in reality it is not so.

 Not only

are there no special quotas for our family

and trips are subject to the number of people who can enter the country per day, but there are no flights, or at least these were reduced, and consequently they are not easily available today. or they have stellar prices impossible to afford.

Instagram image capture of the group “Love is not tourism”, loveisnottourism_arg.

where you can find almost 200 stories of binational couples and families.

Another issue, which is not settled, is that the measure announced this Thursday 5 did not provide for the opening of land borders for our family.

This would facilitate at least many situations with our neighboring countries avoiding depending on the authorization of flights, the constant cancellations and rescheduling, commonplace these days.

Amen that our struggle continues with these issues, we want to emphasize that the measure of June 25 that suspended family reunification was

totally untimely and surprising for us.

It is also very important to highlight the difficulties in processing a visa from countries such as Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Morocco and Palestine, since they are countries that do not have free access to the country, an issue that has not yet found a solution.

Although we have nothing against Argentine tourism or vaccination in the United States, we feel that it was never taken into account that our family went abroad for work, health, for family issues, for studies and that they also owed and wanted to return. Many of our relatives

missed their flights, and even got off the plane. Yes, they got them off the plane!

From this, everything was chaos and confusion.

The National Directorate of Migration told us through social networks that we could process special permits at the Argentine Consulate of the foreign country, invoking humanitarian reasons. While we all tried by invoking all kinds of humanitarian reason, from love to physical and psychological ailments, only one member of the group succeeded.

The consulates did attend, but they answered you in the negative.

If your case applied, they offered you a family reunification visa that, for Mercosur countries, costs US $ 300; and for non-Mercosur, US $ 850. Even so, the ghost of the flights: there was none.

Meanwhile, during these five weeks in the group there were

mothers giving birth alone, early deliveries, moms or dads doing tasks for Zoom, very sick people on the verge of death, frustrated fertility treatments, panic and anxiety attacks and couples who could not bear it. uncertainty and decided to end their relationship.

We all suffered a shock.

And we were all there for each other!

Maximiliano Castignani (Argentina) and Verónica Guerrero Obando (Uruguay).

In March 2020, he was in Uruguay when the health emergency was decreed and he returned to Buenos Aires, they closed borders and he could not leave his father alone because he has several comorbidities.

From that moment they are separated.

Natalia Gilabert - a valuable member of the group, a clinical psychologist specializing in attachment and a couples therapist - affirms that love is not a luxury, it is a human need that is wired to our brain from the moment we are born. Human beings look for meaningful links to turn to during difficult times. That is, love is a matter of survival and distance in times of storm puts our mental health at risk.

That is why it is so important for us to highlight

how much we need that first hug, that reunion hug.

In addition, Natalia adds that being away from our loved ones weakens us, quiets us our base, our safety net that allows us to face almost any situation with greater strength and health.

If there is something worse than panic, it is to suffer it alone.

Binational families and couples feel invisible to the State.

We no longer want to live in uncertainty and unpredictability. "

.

During the five weeks we were on constant alert. We did not sleep soundly, and each day was flooded with uncertainty: we did not know what news we were going to wake up to. "The State takes care of you", we heard there, "health is integral", we heard there. In recent times, anxiety and panic attacks have only been on the rise. We get sick. Not only did they not take care of us, but they aggravated our suffering in the face of so much unpredictability with the measures and confusing messages from the authorities.

Binational families and couples feel invisible to the State.

We do not appear in statistics, we were not even "lucky" to be stranded.

The stranded - although we understand that the situation was mishandled - knew that he would eventually return.

We did not know when we were leaving (and we are going) to meet our family again.

32 weeks pregnant.

Juliana Gallina Socolovsky (Argentina) and José Pedro Zañartu Islas (Chile).

We are expecting our baby Rome.

I am 32 weeks and I talk to him every day telling him that he has to wait for his father yes or yes.

We trust that it will arrive, we have already cried too much these months.

To conclude, we cannot fail to highlight our dissatisfaction and disagreement with the report of July 30, 2021 from the Ministry of Health. There, among several

“recommendations” it

suggests the

“prohibition of entry of non-resident foreigners to the country”

. We all agree that our situation was totally unknown there. Why not recommend a ban on the entry of "tourists"? Precisely, these “non-resident foreigners” are our family. We think it has a xenophobic tinge.

Are these non-resident foreigners more contagious than the rest of the people who come from abroad?

With this letter we want to invite readers to reflect on our situation.

We especially ask for empathy on the part of the authorities, we also have plans and life projects.

We are aware that we are going through a pandemic, but emotional ties are essential in this context.

Our families and couples are not tourists

, they do not come to the country to visit places, they come to see their loved ones.

Today they "gave us back" our right to family.

Tomorrow, who knows.

We no longer want to live in uncertainty and unpredictability.

We want to see our loved ones, it is not a whim, we are talking about families separated by these invisible walls that are the borders.

Clara M. Dozo /

claramdozo@gmail.com LOVE IS NOT TOURISM GROUP

THE EDITOR'S COMMENT

By César Dossi

Between wild tales and tall tales

"Love is not tourism", (Love is not tourism)

, is a global group

.

We are on social networks and in Argentina we are approximately

5,000 people

.

We pass information to each other and we support each other.

Now, for example, we are looking at the requirements to enter the country and others ”

, explains Clara Dozo.

And she tells us that her husband left in August 2020 to study in France, his return was scheduled for June 28, but the government measure took them by surprise

and he still could not return.

Another Argentine, who wanted to remain anonymous, had to separate from her partner because they could not bear the situation and the distance played against them. Juliana Gallina Socolovsky has a 32-week pregnancy that transits it alone because her partner, who is in Chile, could not enter the country either.

These are just a few of the nearly

200 stories

from this group piling up on @loveisnottourism_arg.

Is that the Ministry of Health suggested the

"prohibition of entry of non-resident foreigners to the country

.

"

And, again, they put everyone in the same bag, and the binationals claim their rights from other continents.

While the President wielded his finger

blaming society for the infections,

these families were divided, some already destroyed, with health problems or giving birth in solitude, and the State policies for which they

begged for their loved ones

were only a putting into effect. scene more.

The National Directorate of Migration announced last Thursday the resumption of family reunification, but the published flights remain unconfirmed and, from Argentina,

the voices continue to waver,

between the wild story and the Chinese story.