Many Venezuelan migrants are stuck at the Ecuadorian Peruvian border service center, waiting for their documents got processed and continue their journey, Tumbes, Peru, June 15, 2019. (Photo: VCG)

Some 200 mostly Venezuelan migrants fleeing poverty at home remained stranded on the Peru-Chile border on Thursday after being refused entry to Chile earlier this week.

"Those who meet the legal requirements, regardless of origin and nationality, will enter the country," said Chilean Interior Minister Andrés Chadwick. 

Latin America is in the grip of an immigration crisis, with millions of people from Central America and Venezuela driven by poverty and violence to seek refuge in other countries while the US urges governments to reduce the flow of asylum seekers arriving at its border.

A precise count of the number of people at the border crossing of Chacalluta in the extreme north of Chile was not available, but immigrant support organizations estimated the number at 200.

"We have a relative in Chile," said Venezuelan Aida Guacara, adding that she "would not know what to do" if authorities do not allow her to enter the country. 

Chile, a major world mining power, has a much stronger economy than crisis-stricken oil-producer Venezuela.

"We've already been traveling for more than eight days. We came by land," said Aida.

The director of the Jesuit Migrants Service of Chile, José Tomás Vicuña, said on social media that migrants stuck in the area, some of them children, have begun to have health problems.

"We have not eaten since yesterday (Wednesday)," said another woman, who hoped to enter Chile soon.