Hundreds of Hondurans trying to start a new caravan to reach the United States border were stopped by Honduran security personnel before they could even reach the border with neighbouring Guatemala.
The Honduran police and immigration agents asked their countrymen to show travel documents and proof of negative coronavirus tests, which none appeared to have.
Many of the migrants said the two recent hurricanes had devastated their homes or livelihoods, and they set out late on Wednesday on a trek towards Guatemala, Mexico and the US border. Last week, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez himself visited Washington, DC and warned of possible food shortages as a result of the hurricanes.
Roughly 600 men, women and children had gathered in Honduras on Wednesday and began walking towards the Guatemalan border [Jose Cabezas/Reuters]“What do we have to return to?” migrant Angela Castellano asked one of the Honduran agents. Castellano set out with her baby and her husband for the US after her husband lost his job at a banana plantation.
“I lost everything, my child’s passport, his clothes, everything. It’s not fair they’re doing this to us,” Castellano said as she wept. “I tell my boy, ‘I have no home, I have no food to give you.’ He just cries for milk.”
About 150 migrants sat on the roadside leading to the border crossing, wondering how they could continue their journey. Hurricanes Eta and Iota hit within weeks of each other, causing widespread flooding in Honduras.
“There is nothing, my brother, we lost everything,” said Jose Samuel Reyes, a resident of San Pedro Sula, the country’s industrial hub and the area hardest hit.
Hondurans rest as they take part in a new caravan of migrants, set to head to the US, in Cofradia, Honduras [Jose Cabezas/Reuters]“We are going here only with what the hurricane left us,” said Edgardo Calderon, who said he was setting out with part of his family to the US “to see what happens”.
According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, more than 4.3 million Central Americans, including three million Hondurans, were affected by Hurricane Eta alone. Those numbers only rose when Iota, another Category 4 storm, hit the region.
“We were living underneath a bridge, with houses made of plastic sheets,” caravan member Yey Rivera said by telephone.
Rivera, 24, said after the hurricane destroyed his home and government aid never arrived, he joined the caravan hoping to find work in the US to send money back to his family.
“What hurt me most was leaving my mother alone under the bridge,” he said. “[But] I have to be strong to help her.”
By midday on Thursday, a small group of migrants reached the Guatemalan border town of Corinto.
While some caravans in 2018 and 2019 made it to the US border, the most recent attempts have routinely been stopped [Jose Cabezas/Reuters]While some caravans in 2018 and 2019 made it to the US border, the recent attempts have routinely been stopped. In October, security forces in neighbouring Guatemala turned back another large group of Hondurans who tried to abandon their country.
In addition to the hurricanes, families from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are seeking to flee economic devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic as well as chronic problems of violence and poverty.
After slowing for the past year, apprehensions of migrants on the southwestern US border began to rise in September and were up more than 50 percent in October from the previous year, according to US Customs and Border Protection data.
The possibilities of reaching the US or even Mexico are slim due to mobility restrictions imposed against the pandemic and the strengthening of immigration controls that were put in place since 2019 in Mexico and Guatemala due to pressure from the Trump administration [Jose Cabezas/Reuters]Biden has pledged to pursue a “humane” migration policy and promised a $4bn plan to address underlying factors driving migration from Central America.
However, none of that means that the journey north is easier. The possibilities of reaching the US or even Mexico are slim due to mobility restrictions imposed against the pandemic and the strengthening of immigration controls that were put in place since 2019 in Mexico and Guatemala due to pressure from the Trump administration.
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December 11, 2020 at 10:59PM
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Honduran authorities try to disperse US-bound migrant caravan - Al Jazeera English
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