Chile's new right-wing govt vows to step up migrant deportations

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Santiago: Chile's new right-wing government on Thursday announced plans to step up migrant deportations, after expelling a first group of 40 people from Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador.
President Jose Antonio Kast took office in March as Chile's most right-wing leader since the end of General Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship.
He was elected on a promise to crack down on illegal migration from poorer South American countries, particularly Venezuela, which many Chileans blame for a surge in violent crime.
In his first address to the nation as leader on Wednesday, Kast said Thursday's deportation flight would be the "first in a long series" aimed at creating a sustained outflow of "irregular migrants who should not stay in our country."
"We will intensify the (deportation) flights," deputy interior minister Maximo Pavez told reporters on Thursday, adding that the government also planned to send migrants home by bus.
The left-wing administration of Kast's predecessor Gabriel Boric also expelled migrants -- over 6,600 in five years.
During his campaign Kast, an ultraconservative father of nine, called on the around 330,000 migrants living illegally in Chile to self-deport or risk being thrown out after his election.
Days after his inauguration Kast launched the construction of trenches along the borders with Peru and Bolivia -- the main crossing points for migrants from Venezuela and other Latin American countries.
He also cancelled plans to give papers to around 180,000 foreigners.
He has expressed hopes that Venezuelans who fled their country's economic collapse under ousted socialist leader Nicolas Maduro will return home now that Maduro is sitting in a New York jail.