Hundreds of Venezuelans seeking to return home gathered in a makeshift tent camp outside their embassy in Santiago, Chile, on Thursday, as the coronavirus outbreak spurs a reverse migration wave of those who fled their crisis-stricken country in recent years.

Cases of the coronavirus have spiked in the past week in many places like Chile, prompting increasingly tough lockdown measures that have left many out of work and Chile's once stable economy in tatters.

As a result, migratory flows have made a U-turn since these migrants cannot earn any living aboard and have to go back home even though their home countries are in a much worse situation.

Iramairys Chacón, an immigrant from Venezuelan who owes two months of rent, had previously cleaned houses and worked as a nanny to support her 3-year-old son. Now she is unemployed and homeless.

Chacon was one of at least 400 people that had gathered outside in the tent camp and on mattresses on a leafy street beside the embassy, as well as in a church storage building nearby.

Venezuela's economic collapse unleashed the biggest migratory crisis in recent South American history. But thousands of migrants from Colombia to Ecuador to Chile have sought to return home in recent weeks, finding that the often informal jobs they do in service and retail sectors have dried up during coronavirus-related lockdowns.

Alejandro Parada, who described himself as a spokesman for the group, said an embassy worker told them Caracas was aware of their plight, and would alert them to any available flights back to Venezuela. Most travel in the region has been suspended.

"She told us... that we have to wait because Venezuela's borders are closed, so it is difficult to send a plane here," Parada said.

In early May, the Venezuelan foreign ministry said it planned to bring home citizens from countries throughout South America. Since then, the crowd outside the embassy in Santiago has grown by the day, Reuters said.

(With input from agencies)