Chilean police on Sunday arrested 17 Bolivians and two Peruvians, who entered the country on foot and without papers, intending to work in Chile.

The 19 immigrants were arrested on Route Five North as they were traveling to Iquique, in the extreme north of Chile, police said.

Among them, the youngest was 18 and the oldest 50; eight were women, one of whom was nursing a nine-month-old baby.

A bus had taken them to within 5 miles of the border, which they crossed on foot in deserted Colchane, 263 km from Iquique, in a bid to avoid Chile's Military Police.

They were handed over to the Foreign Department of the Investigative Police for deportation.

Source: Xinhua