Foreign Affairs Ministry and Investigations Police (PDI) launch “Responsible Traveler” campaign
The initiative aims to make recommendations to Chileans travelling abroad during the September holidays. Travelers are being called on to find out about the requirements for their trip, the rules and legislation they need to take into account, to check the validity of their passports or whether they need visas, among other things.
Foreign Affairs Minister Roberto Ampuero, along with Chilean Investigations Police (PDI) Director General Héctor Espinosa, went to Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago to launch the responsible traveler campaign Viajero Responsable.
The initiative aims to provide Chileans who are planning to travel abroad for the September holidays with a number of recommendations for before and during their trip.
The campaign is calling on all travelers to find out about the requirements for their trip, the rules and legislation they need to take into account, to check the validity of their passports, whether they need a visa, how long the visa is valid for, among other measures.
Minister Ampuero stated that, “last year, 729 Chileans were declared inadmissible in several countries because their passports were no longer valid, were about to expire, or for some other obstacle that prevented them from entering.” In this same vein, he said that also during last year, “140 Chilean consulates abroad issued more than 4,300 safe conduct documents to Chileans allowing them to return to our country, and almost 300 consular passports.”
He pointed out that “there are things in Chile that are possible and that in other countries are not possible, and we have to be aware of this. We have to know that cultures are different, that the legislation is different. And this is very important: not knowing the legislation of another country does not exempt you from responsibility. You cannot claim ignorance of the law, nor argue in another country that in yours it is different.”
He said that the consulates will always help Chileans, but emphasized that “Chilean consulates and Chile cannot bear the costs of lawyers’ fees, nor medical expenses and neither can it change the decisions taken by the authorities regarding you in other countries”.
► For more information on all of the recommendations, the countries that require a tourism visa, or the measures you need to take for a safe and responsible trip, visit the website www.chilevacontigo.cl