Original article: Ni trata ni tráfico: el informe sobre niños haitianos desmonta la alarma que instaló el Gobierno

Report Discredits Claims of Haitian Child Trafficking, Revealing Administrative Chaos Instead

The preliminary report No. 541 from the General Comptroller’s Office of the Republic does not contain the words «trafficking» or «trade» in any of its 70 pages, dismantling the alarm raised by the government of José Antonio Kast regarding the alleged disappearance of Haitian children entering Chile. Instead, it documented an administrative chaos that the government attempted to frame as a national security crisis.

When the document was leaked on April 14, headlines from the media set off alarms nationwide, including «More than 200 Haitian children missing,» «184 minors unaccounted for,» and «486 children arrived with only 12 adults.» Concurrently, the Prosecutor’s Office launched investigations into trafficking, trade, forgery, and bribery, and the National Migration Service filed criminal complaints against charter flights; columnists speculated about sexual exploitation while the far-right administration convened emergency meetings.

However, as noted by El Mostrador, the report revealed that the National Migration Service failed to adequately cross-reference its databases, the PDI lacked formal protocols, the Child Subsecretariat did not conduct timely follow-ups, and three state agencies that were supposed to coordinate simply did not.

Data Disproving the Alleged Trafficking Network

The Comptroller’s report indicated that homes registered over a year ago were visited during working hours, when parents are at work and children are at school. Of the 105 children visited, only 41 were found. The other 64 were not missing; they were simply not at home at that time.

When authorities performed their tasks diligently, cross-referencing school and health records rather than relying on daytime door-knocking, children were located within hours. The PDI found 25, and municipalities added more; Estación Central discovered 7, and Graneros found 2.

Annex 5 of the report precisely details what occurred with the 64 children not located during the home visits: in 20 cases, neighbors did not know the family, in 13 cases families had moved, in 10 instances no one answered the door, in 5 cases the child lived there but was visiting, and in 4 cases the address did not exist.

Only one case was actually a genuine disappearance, reported by the child’s father, which undermined the hypothesis of an alleged trafficking network that the government had promoted.

The most notable statistic from the alleged crisis —»486 children with 12 adults»— was also the most misinterpreted. This figure does not represent a criminal operation, but rather the total of minors that those adults accompanied over two years of travel, backed by notarized powers of attorney from the parents.

El Mostrador highlighted that since insecurity has collapsed the country, no regular airline has flown to Haiti. Charter flights were not a clandestine practice; they were the only way to bring the children, and the Chilean state authorized each one through the DGAC. The report itself confirms that all non-regular flights had the required authorizations from the Arrival and Overflight System.

The appearance of 12 adults accompanying many children can be explained similarly: they are organizers of an improvised humanitarian corridor due to the state’s failure to create a formal one. Having someone accompanying 34 minors does not make them a trafficker, but simply the person who chartered the plane and aggregated the notarized powers of attorney from families who cannot afford a trip exceeding 10 million pesos.

Government Triggers Alarm and Then Attempts to put it out

Two weeks after raising the alarm, the Kast government had to come out and refute the narrative of an alleged security crisis and panic it had established. Defense Minister Fernando Barros admitted in a conversation with Radio Universo: «There is no serious evidence indicating we are facing a child trafficking issue, child prostitution, or organ trade,» or at least that children are «missing or lost.»

«Thank God, so far, everything indicates this is a terrible disorder, a very poor policy,» he admitted.

Simultaneously, Minister of Social Development María Jesús Wulf urged not to jump to conclusions, acknowledged that the state needed improvement, and pointed out that it was not the right time for «political recriminations,» especially since the Kast’s electoral campaign was built on the narrative of the supposed migratory chaos under former President Gabriel Boric’s administration.

Barros conceded that the preliminary report was confidential and that its leak was «very regrettable», without explaining why the information reached the media in an incomplete version, especially when La Moneda, facing a continuous decline in public approval, required a strong narrative on migration.

Two weeks after the alarm, it became clear that the issue was never the disappearance or trafficking of Haitian children, but a state that failed to do its job and a government that politically exploited the confusion.