PRESENTER: The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says there's an increase of Africans migrating to Latin America as some European nations tighten their border controls. UN Radio's Jorge Miyares spoke to UNHCR's information officer in Argentina, Carolina Podesta, about the situation:
Duration: 2'31"
PODESTA: In the last two, three years, we surpassed from less than 500 people asking for asylum in Argentina for around a thousand, so the doubling of the numbers in two years and a half. And we think that this number will be increasing year after year.
MIYARES: In the particular case of Argentina, what's the reception being accorded to these immigrants by the government, by the local population and by UNHCR?
PODESTA: We are working with the government and with the local authorities in the way to organize the access of these people to the right that every refugee or asylum seekers deserve. - that is our population of concern, asylum seekers are refugees or migrants and a refugee is a person that has to escape from his country because he is a victim of persecution, for several reasons. And the government allows them to enjoy the benefits of migrants - access to education, to public health, and right to stay in the country, right to travel inside the country, right to work legally in the country. And also we work with local society in facilitating the integration of these people - if they don't speak Spanish, to just teach them Spanish so they are able to go to school or to have a good job that will allow them to be self-sufficient, that the people is in charge of their own life and they could restart their life and have a second chance in life.
MIYARES: What are the countries from which they are mostly coming from?
PODESTA: Senegal, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo. Some come from countries that basically you'd think that there are no conflicts but if you research very carefully you can see that you have areas where they are very unstable and guerillas are operating so you have really to check carefully the situation of the country.
MIYARES: When they come to Argentina, do they usually do that legally or illegally?
PODESTA: Both, some came legally and others don't but you don't have to come into the country in a legal way to be able to ask for refugee status. You can be smuggled inside of a country and be able to ask for refugee status and get it because this person can be victim of torture or can be very scared, he will try to be safe and to get somehow to another country. Some people came very desperately. I mean they jump into a boat, they don't know where they go, they get into Argentina and they don't know anything, they just know that we play football, and it's a big country, no more than that, and they are here you know and we have to work for them to find a second chance here.
PRESENTER: UNHCR's information officer Carolina Podesta speaking to UN Radio's Jorge Miyares.