Written by Edgar Ruiz
Minister of the Secretariat of Development for Repatriates and Refugees
It is estimated that 14% of the Paraguayan population resides abroad. The Secretariat of Development for Repatriates and Refugees (Sederrec, by its acronym in Spanish) has as its institutional mission to advocate its actions towards this segment of the population, to assist the ones that want or need to return to our country, and at the same time, generating conditions to propitiate their dignified reintegration.
Currently, the Sederrec benefitted over 8,000 people through its programs, such as the Attention to a Secure Residency, inclusion to national identity, assisted return of fellow citizens, and the support for Returned Entrepreneurs.
Creating opportunities for fellow citizens to desire to return to the country is one of the principal axes of the Sederrec. The directions of the President were very clear: to generate conditions for fellow citizens to want to return and contribute to the country, for which we have been working co-ordinately along with other institutions to strengthen the offers of public services aimed at emigrated and repatriated families.
Paraguay is one of the few countries in the region and world to provide a permanent subsidiary program to repatriate its fellow citizens in a vulnerable state, victims of human trafficking, natural disasters, war conflicts, and even persons who have passed away abroad.
Annually, we gave from 400 to 500 subsidies for repatriating fellow citizens in vulnerable situations and those who have passed abroad. This articulated work has allowed us to face challenges for emergency repatriations in catastrophes such as the nuclear crisis of 2011 in Japan, the social situation in Bolivia and Venezuela that affected a group of fellow citizens, the COVID-19 pandemic, in which we have repatriated 6,000 Paraguayans, or the recent conflicts in Russia and Israel, from which we had to evacuate our compatriots.
Nevertheless, the most significant percentage of people who come to the Sederrec are fellow citizens who return by their means.
The Paraguayan repatriates have a lot to contribute to our country. Our programs will constitute them as national development actors, incorporating the capital, knowledge, and experience they have acquired abroad in favourable conditions.
The Sederrec, with the support of the Ministry of Technologies of Information and Communications (Mitic, by its acronym in Spanish), plans to digitize 100% of its procedures for issuing the Repatriation Certificate this year. This will allow some services to be requested from abroad. For the ones that have returned, it will ease the request for their places of residence from any point in the country.