A shocking alleged child trafficking scheme involving unaccompanied Haitian minors has triggered a formal criminal complaint in Chile, pulling back the curtain on a complex cross-border criminal operation that authorities have spent months probing. On June 15, 2026, Frank Sauerbaum, head of Chile’s National Migration Service (SERMIG), submitted the official complaint to the Central-North Metropolitan Regional Prosecutor’s Office, launching a full criminal probe into suspicious movements of Haitian children on charter flights between January and October 2025.
The complaint is backed by six dossiers of technical evidence compiled during joint audits conducted by SERMIG, the Comptroller General of the Republic and Chile’s Investigative Police, following months of coordinated investigation into irregular migration patterns involving minor arrivals. Investigations have so far uncovered that at least 12 individuals—both Chilean citizens and foreign nationals—repeatedly entered Chile posing as authorized chaperones for groups of Haitian children and adolescents, with group sizes ranging from just 2 minors up to 18.
What makes the case particularly alarming is that none of the accused chaperones share any familial or blood ties to the minors they escorted into the country. Further, authorities confirm none of these individuals held the mandatory legal authorization required under Article 28 of Chile’s Immigration and Foreigners Law. This blatant violation of existing regulations directly undermines the fundamental rights and best interests of the children involved, and authorities say the activity meets the legal definition of migrant smuggling under Article 411 bis of Chile’s Penal Code.
The complaint does not only target the alleged chaperones. It names multiple potential parties that may share criminal responsibility, including the commercial airlines that operated the charter flights, the travel agencies that arranged the trips, and any other third party found to have participated in or facilitated the scheme.
Complicating the investigation further, between January and April 2025, many of the irregular flights were framed as official family reunification travel. As of the complaint filing, ongoing probes have failed to locate several of the minors who entered Chile under this false pretext, raising urgent questions about how the original travel authorizations for these trips were granted in the first place. Prosecutors are now expected to launch a full, expanded investigation to map the full scope of the alleged trafficking network, identify all co-conspirators, and trace the current whereabouts of the missing children.