MIGRANT TRAFFICKING
A Case Study:   HONDURAS

This document has been prepared by a working group integrated by the General Directorate of Population and Migration Policy of the Secretariat of Government and Justice of the Government of Honduras and the International Organization for Migration, IOM, with financial support from the Government of Canada.

 

Tegucigalpa, Honduras, February 2000

  

The designations utilized and the presentation of the material in this report in no way imply an expression or opinion by IOM with regard to the situation of any country, territory or area, or their authorities, or with regard to their borders or geographic limits.

 

Background

The phenomenon of illegal migrant trafficking is a problem whose growth and consequences have required the attention of the Governments involved. 

To face this scourge, the international community has had to organize at both the world and regional levels to discuss the problem of the traffic in human beings and to seek strategies and solutions in different fora. Thus, the Puebla Process came into being with the First Regional Conference on Migration in March 1996, with the participation of Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and the United States of America, giving special emphasis to combating illegal migrant trafficking.

Similarly, during the II Regional Conference on Migration, held in Panama on March 11-14, 1997, topics such as Migration Policy, the Links between Migration and Development, International Cooperation for the Return of Extra-Regional Migrants, Human Rights, and Cooperation were seen. However, special interest was given to dealing with illegal migrant trafficking in the Plan of Action approved by the participating governments.

Later, at the Technical Meeting held in San José on November 16-17, 1997, the Canadian Government expressed its willingness to support a case study on migrant trafficking in Panama.  The International Organization for Migration also collaborated, and it was carried out with positive results and was presented during the III Regional Conference on Migration in Ottawa, Canada in February 1998. During that Conference, the Government of Guatemala expressed its desire that a similar study be carried out in that country. The study took place in August 1998.

At the Meeting of the Migration Consulting Group held in Gananoque, Canada, in October 1998, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior of the Government of El Salvador expressed interest in carrying out a case study on migrant trafficking with assistance from the International Organization for Migration. In January 1999, at the IV Regional Conference on Migration held in El Salvador, this organization officially confirmed its willingness to make a similar study, which was finalized in March 1999.

At the Regional Meeting of the Migration Consulting Group held in San Salvador, El Salvador on October 27-29, 1999, the International Organization for Migration was entrusted with drafting a study on migrant trafficking in Honduras, similar to those carried out in other countries in the region.

Finally, on November 17, 1999, the Government of Costa Rica formalized a request before the International Organization for Migration, to carry out a study under the same conditions as the foregoing studies, with financial support from Canada.

 

1.         Description of Migrant Trafficking and how it relates to Honduras

In order to unify the terminology used in this, as well as foregoing studies, we will base ourselves on the scope of the definition of illegal migrant trafficking formulated in the International Seminar organized by the International Organization for Migration (XI Seminar on Migrations, Geneva, October 26-28, 1994). According to this definition, migrant trafficking is made up of four components:

                  1.                  A trafficker or intermediary that facilitates the border crossing

                  2.                  Payment to the trafficker by the migrant or someone on his/her behalf

                  3.                  This activity is illegal or carrying it out requires several illegal acts

4.      The migrant has voluntarily sought out the trafficker

 

On this last point the exception must be made that the migrant may not be breaking the law voluntarily.

1.1    General Description of Migrant Trafficking

Within the phenomenon of illegal migrant trafficking, Honduras is mainly a transit corridor and sending country for irregular migrants and also has significant organized illegal trafficking. The migrants, consisting mainly of Ecuadorians, Colombians, Peruvians, Dominicans, Cubans, and to a smaller degree Haitians, Asians (Chinese, Hindus, Pakistanis, Iraqis and Iranians) and Africans (Nigerians and Somalis), use Honduran territory as a bridge to reach the United States and Canada.

1.2    Main Routes and Means of Transportation

Honduras has several land, air, and sea border crossing points open. The main route used for illegal migrant trafficking is by land, approximately 80%, in comparison with air at 15% and maritime at 5%. The country’s geographical situation consists of its characteristic mountainous terrain covered with easy access routes. This is especially true in the dry season, when the rivers dry up and allow passage on foot. There are also many zones with good roads free from migration checkpoints, due to an insufficient budget to maintain them, which further facilitate the development of illegal migrant trafficking.

The geographic location of the migration control points can be described as follows:

There are town checkpoints in the following Departments:

-      Cortés: Delegations in Omoa and La Mesa

-      Santa Bárbara: Delegations in Santa Bárbara and Las Vegas

-      Copán: Delegations in El Florido, Copán Ruins, and Santa Rosa de Copán

-      Ocotepeque: Delegations in Agua Caliente, Ocotepeque, and El Poy

-      Lempira: Delegation in Las Gracias

-      Intiburo: Delegation in La Esperanza

-     La Paz: Delegations in La Paz, Marcala, and Pasamonos

-      Valle: Delegations in El Amatillo, Amapala, Nacaome, and San Lorenzo

-      Choluteca: Delegations in Choluteca, Guasaule, and la Fraternidad

-     El Paraíso: Delegations in Danlí, El Paraíso, Trojes, and la Apertura

-      Blancho: Delegations in Juticalpa and Catacamas

-      Gracias a Dios: Delegation in Puerto Lempira

-      Colón: Delegation in Trujillo

-      Atlántida: Delegations in Tela, Golosón, and La Ceiba

-      Yoro: Delegations in El Progreso and Olanchito

-      Francisco Morazán: Central Offices in Tegucigalpa and Toncontín

-      Comayagua: Delegations of Palmerola and Siguatepeque

Together with these migration control points, there are numerous points that are lacking this type of control, known as blind points, among which the following can be considered the most important:

On the Border with Guatemala:

Río Amarillo, Cabañas, Santa Rita, El Portillo, Jocotán, Camotán, Caparajá, Piñuelas, La Brea, La Machaca, La Llanta, Los Mojonales, Las Mesas, and Citalá.

 

On the Border with El Salvador:

El Aceituno, Paso Real, Las Calabazas, Nacascolo, Los Copalíos, La Piña, Tierra Blanca, El Zapote, Llano de Jesús, Los Encuentros, San Jerónimo, La Laguna, La Orilla, los Horcones, el Paso de las Torres, La Caridad, and Los Mangos.

 

On the Border with Nicaragua:

Catarina, El Estribo, Canoa, Caoba, Demayo, Soní, El Coyol, Palo Verde, Los Quebrachos, El Cantón, Las Champas, La Picona, Las Barracas, Las Dificultades, La Lodosa, San Benito, La Antena, Las Damas, Siete de Mayo, Concepción de María, and Corpus.

These points are the main entry and exit zones used for illegal migrant trafficking.

The aforementioned points are used with the sole objective of eluding migration and police controls. The means of transportation used for these ends are of many types: microbuses, taxis, dump trucks, pick-ups, heavy trucks, public transportation, bicycles, horses, and so forth.

There are rest stops along the route, which consist of private homes or farms that offer room and board services.

Furthermore, there are rivers whose current during certain periods of the year restricts their passage, but during the dry season they dry up and facilitate foot traffic.

Irregular migrants also enter through Puerto Cortés, mainly Dominicans and Colombians, and to a lesser degree Jamaicans and Haitians. Many Colombians arrive aboard ships coming from Puerto Limón, Costa Rica, and the Dominicans arrive via Río Jaina in the Dominican Republic. The Department of Cortés shares a common border with Guatemala, which is approximately 68 kilometers (42 miles) long. When irregular migrants are intercepted, they are delivered to the migration authorities to be documented and returned to their countries of origin. If a ship is set to sail with a very large number of them, it sails out of territorial waters under custody.

 

1.3    The Migrants: Who are they? Where are they from? Where are they going?

At present, the General Directorate of Population and Migration Policy of Honduras does not have systematized information that would be able to provide a precise profile of the migrant involved in illegal trafficking. According to data provided by officials from that institution, Honduran territory is crossed by a wide variety of migrants from the region as well as outside of the region under the guidance of organized traffickers, destined to the United States and Canada. The most common nationalities, in descending order, come from Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba. From outside the region they come from China, India, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, and Singapore, and to a much lesser extent and more recently, from Nigeria and Somalia. Minors from Nicaragua, in their majority women, constitute a special case, as they attempt to enter Honduras irregularly using the CA4 document.[1]

A significant majority of these individuals, after apprehension and interrogation, states that they are headed for the United States and Canada.

Many migrants from South America have also been intercepted using the CA4 together with fraudulent identity documents belonging to Salvadoran and Nicaraguan nationals. This is a consequence, according to Honduran migration officials, of the lack of controls by officials in those countries over the issuance and concession of travel documents. Honduran migration authorities attempt to control these acts through careful interrogations with regard to the point of origin of the migrant in irregular condition, in order to determine whether he/she is a native of the country indicated on the document.

Although the General Directorate of Population reports no age and occupation data for the migrants that are the victims of illegal trafficking, the experience of the officials is that 70% are men and 30% women. Recently, however, new groups of migrants in irregular status have been detected among whom the percentage is 50% men and 50% women. There are some border crossings such as the case of Guasaule, on the border with Nicaragua, where officials have found a growing proportion of under-aged females travelling in an irregular manner with ties to child prostitution networks.

With regard to Puerto Cortés, since it is a port area, it is one of transit, on an almost exclusive basis, for men between the ages of 18 and 35 years of age on their way to Belize to later transfer to the United States and Canada.

There is a recent factor that is important to include in this characterization of illegal migrant trafficking. Minors are being smuggled for sexual exploitation and/or involvement in drug trafficking. A press release from Reuters dated January 26, 2000, states that in Vancouver, Canada, 40 individuals were arrested, most of whom were Honduran children between 12 and 18 years of age, being exploited by drug traffickers. These children, who had entered Canadian territory under irregular conditions from the United States, were also being exploited in sexual trade, which in Vancouver alone produces 100 sexual exploitation activities a day. It is feared that this situation will continue to worsen, not only because their numbers are growing at an alarming rate, but also because those boys and girls involved in child prostitution frequently have also developed some type of drug addiction. During the recent Seminar on Migrant Women and Children held within the context of the Puebla Process in San Salvador on February 24-25, the representative of Casa Alianza reported that their research had allowed them to identify two sending communities that provided most of those smuggled children.

Within this panorama and taking as their starting point the international agreements arising from the International Congress Against Sexual Trade Exploitation of Children held in Stockholm, Sweden, in August 1996, Casa Alianza and ECPAT INTERNACIONAL have joined efforts to carry out a new project. The project “Research on Trafficking, Prostitution, Child Pornography and Sexual Tourism with Children in Mexico and Central America” has received the support of the Canadian Embassy in Costa Rica. The main objectives are to have current research on the manifestations, forms, networks, and routes within the region whereby the trafficking, prostitution, pornography, and sexual tourism are carried out. It will provide knowledge and instruments to introduce, strengthen, promote, or support effective changes in the legislation and behavior of national and regional institutions with regards to this problem area. Furthermore, within the judicial framework, it will seek weaknesses and strengths in current legislation, but especially in its application and the behavior of national and regional institutions when faced with concrete cases of the problem. The project will also strengthen national action plans with regard to this problem area, and finally, improve international and intra-regional cooperation in the behavior and response to the different forms of the problem as it appears in their countries and the regional milieu.

1.4    Who are the traffickers and how are they organized?

International networks of migrant traffickers have been detected, operating both from South America towards the United States as well as others that have been set up to bring extra-regional migrants into the region from Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe. These networks have been set up with a great deal of human resources so that they can contact the relatives of the migrants trafficked. They have broad-ranging knowledge about the geography of the region and the operating procedures of the authorities involved in combating the phenomenon. Furthermore, they possess sophisticated equipment (different vehicles, telephone and radio communication equipment, and diversified instruments for forging documents) and they even have safe houses. These networks are made up of natives and foreigners. Local networks are generally tied into international ones, and the domestic networks are required for their extensive knowledge of routes, schedules and places where authorities operate, and placement of officials susceptible to bribes, thus assisting in this human traffic. These networks have access to lodging, safe houses masquerading as private homes where irregular migrants are put up. In some areas of the country, particularly those that are in the border areas with Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, this illegal traffic has become the modus vivendi of the inhabitants of the zone.

The General Directorate of Population and Migration Policy has identified Nicaraguan, Salvadoran, Guatemalan, and Honduran traffickers with contacts in Panama, Mexico, and the United States.

The Research and Analysis Office of the Directorate has detected several operational strategies for migrant trafficking.

1.   Cases in which the migrant enters Honduras by air, complying with the corresponding visa requirements; however, he/she remains a prudential period on Honduran soil in order to effect the contacts necessary to acquire documents allowing him/her to continue travelling and practice an irregular entry in the countries in the northern part of the continent. For their departure, they use false documents or border crossings that are not controlled by migration. Their clothing, scant luggage, disoriented attitudes, and other characteristics are easily detectable by the traffickers who approach them as they exit the airport, to offer them their services. Honduran migration authorities have indicated that if a trafficker is contracted, he/she transfers the migrant to a hotel and when he/she has contacted a group of between 15 and 20, they are transported to the Honduran border areas, whether towards the zone of Amatillo, Copán, or Ocotepeque. These trips are usually made at night or in the early morning hours in microbuses. The migrants are dropped off approximately 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the border zone, and then they go cross-country over the hills and mountains of the region on foot, a journey lasting from 8 to 12 hours. There is a preference for the Amatillo zone, on the border with El Salvador, instead of those of Copán and Ocotepeque on the Guatemalan border, in order to save time, effort, and avoid as much as possible the migration controls throughout Honduran territory.

2.   When the trip is made overland, entry occurs in the Choluteca region, on the border with Nicaragua. Guasaule has become the main zone for migration flows coming principally from South America. A large number of secondary roads branch off the Inter-American Highway allowing entry into Honduran territory, without the need to go through any migration control post. The crossing is even easier in summer when the Guasaule River dries up and allows access on foot or on horseback. Entry is usually achieved through Chinandega and Somotillo (on the Nicaraguan side), and the Nicaraguan trafficker hands the migrants over to the Honduran trafficker, who will transfer them via different trails with no migration control (blind points) such as Palo Verde, Soní, San Benito, Concepción de María in the North, and to the South Caoba, Siete de Mayo, Canoa, and Catarina. In the specific cases of El Estribo and Catarina, these are melon producing zones where the landowners participate in the phenomenon bringing the migrants in and hiring them during a few days of agricultural labor, while they define their strategies to continue their travels. Later they are transported in trucks laden with fruit, together with Honduran workers or in the chassis of the trucks, under the load of melons, preferably through the blind points at Hormigas and San Bernardo; finally coming out on the main highway. The migrants also can be transported to the Gulf of Fonseca to be carried in shrimp boats by sea and then re-entered into Honduran territory through Cedeño, a beach resort located in the Department of Choluteca. The Honduran traffickers place the migrants in the villages in the zone for several days and then transport them in trucks guarded by smaller vehicles that travel in front of and behind the trucks at a prudent distance in order to provide a radio warning in case of danger. The route selected will depend on the location of the migration control post that they are trying to elude and the information that the trafficker has been able to garner with regard to possible migration operations in the area. There is a tremendous leakage of official information. According to migration authorities, there are indications that some police units that cooperate with them also collaborate with the illegal migrant trafficking networks. The same is true of the informants or “trinqueteros” (literally “tricksters”) that offer data to both the migration authorities and the traffickers.

The trip continues onwards towards the border with El Salvador or Guatemala, with a preference for the former, since it means having to cross less of Honduran territory. The arrival in El Salvador occurs through the region of del Valle and Choluteca. The Amatillo Delegation is located here, and the officials in this post have indicated that there are many blind points such as those in the Southern sector of La Orilla, El Zapote, El Llano de Jesús, Los Horcones, and el Paso de las Torres. In the North there are many as well, in the municipalities of Guascorán and La Mesina, the blind points at La Caridad, Los Mangos, Las Calabazas and Nacascolo. Data from trafficking organizations agree with the points indicated by the Guasaule officials.

With regard to the departure from Honduran territory into Guatemala, this movement occurs in the zone of Agua Caliente, Ocotepeque, and El Copán, a zone that also has many blind points (Río Amarillo, Cabañas, Santa Rita, El Portillo, Jocotán, among others) that allow passage into Guatemalan territory evading migration controls. This route has the advantage of offering a much more direct access to the United States and Canada and is heavily utilized by the migrants with a CA4 document, whether altered or not. Since it is a more complex and hazardous route, more men than women use this route. All along the route there are private houses and farms that offer room and board. The forms of payment may be very different and there is active participation by the inhabitants of each border area, where they offer the irregular migrants shelter and food. The price depends on the difficulty and the amounts are usually paid by bank transfers made by the migrant’s family on their behalf if they are travelling with documents, or directly to the trafficker whose name is transferred to the families by telephone. The price includes the payment for food and lodging.

3.   A third mode takes place in the migrant’s country of origin. In this case, the trafficking organization uses the advertising media[2] for their services, which are contracted from the migrant’s sending country. He or she then pays a percentage of the cost of the trip at the beginning. According to information obtained from Honduran migration authorities, insofar as possible, the trip is by air to Managua, Nicaragua[3]. Upon arrival in that country, the migrants go by taxi to a pre-established point, and another trafficker, who has information on what they look like or their clothes, follows them. Upon arrival the trafficker calls them out one by one by name and tells them that he has come on behalf of the person that recruited them in their country of origin. Later, the trip will continue overland, under the conditions described in the foregoing paragraph or by air if tickets and forged documents have been contracted beforehand.[4]

The phenomenon of illegal traffic with migrants in irregular conditions is reinforced by the tolerant attitude of the airlines that do not verify the entry requirements of the migrants. Furthermore, migration authorities confirm that natives of El Salvador and Guatemala find it easier to come to Tegucigalpa or San Pedro Sula to travel by air with fraudulent documents from their countries, rather than leave from their own countries where the authorities are fully cognizant of the security measures in the documents that they issue. Nevertheless, experience and research have allowed the implementation of security measures at Honduran airports, which have reduced the traffic by 90%.

With regard to the amounts charged by the traffickers, these depend on the nationality and the entry requirements.

Depending on the complexity of the case, there are data that show that the amount a migrant in irregular condition is charged for travel from Honduras to the United States varies between US$2,000 and US$3,000, although these amounts may fluctuate even more.

According to information from document processors, traffickers, moneychangers, and taxi drivers, the amounts charged vary widely. They may vary according to the nationality, whether the trip is made overland, by air, or by sea, and even according to the difficulty involved in breaking the migration regulations of the countries involved in the illegal trafficking phenomenon.

For example, a forged document costs between US$1,500 and US$3,000 depending on the quality. A forged or altered Spanish passport costs around US$2,500 and the authorities calculate that the complete journey for a migrant coming from Asia, mainly Chinese, from their country of origin to the United States or Canada, has a minimum cost of US$12,000. Each country crossed would imply between US$1,500 and US$ 3,000 for an Asian or African, but for a Colombian it would be approximately US$800.

Payment is effected in cash and in several payments by the migrant’s relatives or by the migrant him/herself. The initial payment varies between 30% and 50% of the total value. A second significant payment is made when the migrant reaches Guatemala or Mexico, which may be 30% of what is owed. The final payment is made when the migrant reaches his/her final destination. The migrant travels with little money but may receive bank transfers in his/her name or in the trafficker’s name if the migrant lacks identification papers.

2.         Difficulties Faced by the Government of Honduras in Handling Trafficked Migrants

2.1    With regards to their interception:

To date, the Directorate can rely only on the services of a Department of Investigation and an Inspection Department, so that the migrants that enter under irregular conditions are intercepted by either the delegate stationed on the border or by the aforementioned Department, in joint operations with the National Police. Later they are refused entry, or they are transferred to the central offices for the expulsion orders to be carried out. This also occurs with the migrants intercepted far from the border areas.

Recently a Border and Migration Police Force was established. It is a dependency of the General Directorate of Special Investigation Services, to support and coordinate activities with the General Directorate of Population and Migration Policy. The Migration Police will be responsible solely and exclusively for the migration control of citizens and aliens, pursuant to the current Law on Population and Migration Policy.[5] However, this police unit is still in training stages, so that it has not yet begun operations.

Entry under irregular conditions onto Honduran soil is not characterized in criminal law as a felony, so there is no criminal sanction; rather, it falls into the administrative order, since against that type of act administrative measures for expulsion or refusal of entry at the border are applicable.

Article 31 of the Constitution of the Republic of Honduras establishes the equality of civil rights for aliens and Hondurans, with the restrictions established in the laws for the former, for qualified reasons of public order, security, social interest or convenience. The same Charter indicates in Article 35 that immigration will be conditioned to the social, political, economic, and demographic interests of the country and that ordinary Law will set the requirements, quotas, and conditions for the entry of immigrants into the country. It will also set the prohibitions, limitations, and sanctions that said aliens will be subjected to.

In those cases where a migrant is intercepted entering Honduran territory, the migration authorities will return him/her to their country of immediate origin, by means of refusal of entry. If the interception does not occur immediately upon entry, the authorities will then proceed to expel the irregular migrant.

Additionally, recidivism is classified as a felony. This is established in Article 347 of the Criminal Code, when it states:

         “Article 347.- The alien who has been legally expelled from Honduras and returns to enter the nation’s territory again violating the corresponding order, will be sanctioned with prison for six (6) months to three (3) years, once the sentence has been served, he/she will be expelled from the country.”

2.2    With regard to detention

The General Directorate of Population and Migration Policy does not have an adequate detention site for migrants in irregular situations, since the detention of individuals in this situation does not fall within its functions and competencies. Nevertheless, Article 42 of the Law on Population and Migration Policy establishes an exception to the general norm, when it indicated that the Secretary of Government and Justice may incarcerate at specialized sites those aliens who for any reason cannot be expelled immediately from the country. The reasons given include their being natives of countries with which Honduras does not have amicable relations; for having entered the country without meeting the requirements set by the Law; for being a fugitive or criminal condemned by another country for common felonies that are classified and punished under Honduran law; or for having hidden their true names or falsified their identities or residences, for using or presenting forged or adulterated documents, or for refusing to present their own.

For this reason, in some cases the migrants must be placed under secure conditions in the National Police delegations. Nevertheless, the Institution does have a locale available that is used when dealing with small groups of migrants or when there are women and children participating in the phenomenon, in the event that the acquisition of tickets for their expulsion were to suffer any delay.

The term for detention must be understood in a restrictive sense, i.e., for the minimum lapse of time possible, in order to safeguard the fundamental rights of the foreigners. However, frequently the extension of this period is subject to circumstances beyond the control of the migration authorities, such as delays in documentation for the alien on the part of the corresponding consular representation, acquisition of tickets for travel with the airlines, among others. The migrants must be released if more than 72 hours have passed since their interception.

2.3    With regard to their repatriation

The General Directorate of Population and Migration Policy has a budget to carry out deportations and the expenses for room and board these activities imply. Starting in January 1999, the Embassy of the United States has also cooperated by purchasing airline tickets for the expulsion of migrants in irregular conditions.

Chapter XI, Article 43 of the Law on Population and Migration Policy, which refers to the expulsion of aliens, indicates that the Executive Branch shall proceed to expel from the national territory any alien that has illegally penetrated the country or were to dissimulate his/her condition of expellee. The expulsion will be carried out by the Secretary of Government and Justice, after a summary hearing before the competent authority, in all cases the alien shall be allowed to argue his/her case. Once the expulsion has been decreed and notified, it shall be carried out within a peremptory lapse of 24 hours. The General Directorate shall keep a record of all the individuals that were expelled (Art. 44, idem). The alien that enters Honduran territory in an illegal manner will not have recourse to administrative or judicial action with regard to his/her entry (Art. 45).

2.4    With regard to granting refuge to migrants

In Honduras, the rights of the refugee population fall under the tutelage of the 1951 Convention on Refugee Status and its 1967 Protocol. The person seeking refugee status shall make a request, which will be analyzed and resolved by the Secretary of Government and Justice, whether to grant or deny refuge. The population of migrants under the protection of this status is very limited. Furthermore, political asylum is granted with a legal residence permit for the country. In order to obtain asylum, the person interested must present a request to a Honduran Embassy or Consulate outside the country. From there the request will be forwarded to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, where the arguments presented will be analyzed and a decision will be made whether to grant or refuse asylum.

3.         Difficulties faced by the Government of Honduras in Handling the Traffickers

3.1         Identification

According to the reforms to the Honduran Criminal Code, which created the Migration and Border Police Force, the tasks of intelligence and investigation of migrant trafficking belong to this police force.

To date, these efforts have been carried out by the Investigation Department of the Directorate of Population and Migration Policy, in cooperation with the other departments of the institution and with the participation of INTERPOL and the National Preventive and Investigation Police. The DIC also participates directly in the interdiction of the traffickers.

3.2    Law enforcement resources

In spite of the fact that Honduras is the pioneer in the region with regard to the classification of illegal migrant trafficking as a felony, the application of the current law incurs in several problems in implementation. A significant problem has been the constant refusal of migrants and residents of the border zones to offer testimony, especially at the time that the identification of the traffickers is carried out.

3.3    Legal infrastructure

Since 1994, illegal trafficking and traffickers of persons have been classified as a felony in Honduras. The Criminal Code reads as follows:

         “Article 195.- Whomsoever shall traffic with Hondurans or persons of any nationality or origin, conducting them or having them conducted through the nation’s territory, to intern them illegally into another country for any purpose whatsoever, will be sentenced with imprisonment for six (6) to nine (9) years.

         The sentence shall be increased by one third when those responsible for the crime are public employees or officials.

         If, as a consequence of the commission of this crime, the passive subjects were to suffer privation of their freedom in a foreign country, were victims of crimes of any type or were to perish from violent causes, even though it be in an accidental manner, the penalties mentioned in the first paragraph shall be increased by two thirds.”

3.4         Sentence and prison term:

There are many limitations for carrying out the sentence and prison terms against the migrant traffickers. To achieve effective results, search orders are required, which are almost never carried out in time.

Another problem that arises here is that the migrant in irregular condition cannot be detained for more than 72 hours, whereas the trial against the trafficker may take months and even years. The trafficking victim is long gone from Honduran territory when the time comes to hear the evidence, which is generally testimonial.

And finally, the heads of the organized trafficking groups do not participate directly in the phenomenon, contracting a significant number of persons, which implies that when it is possible to penalized these acts, generally the lower levels of control within the organization are the ones punished.

3.5         Detention and deportation

The National Police currently carry out the detention of the traffickers of migrants in irregular status, working in coordination with the officials of the General Directorate of Population and Migration Policy. Soon, this task will also be coordinated with the Migration and Border Police.

Within 24 hours, the National Police hand the traffickers over to the DIC for the purposes of investigation, and they are later placed at the orders of the prosecutor of the corresponding court.

In the event of a sentencing, the court will determine the sentence according to the minimum and maximum penalties established by Article 195 of the Criminal Code.

4.   Measures that would allow he Government of Honduras to handle the problem more effectively

4.1    Policy and Legislation

As was indicated above, illegal migrant trafficking is duly classified in the Honduran Criminal Code.

However, alongside this regulatory advance in the region, programs must be planned to raise the awareness of the officials related to decision making in this area and the general public. These programs must offer an overall view of the magnitude, consequences, and implications that migrant trafficking has for its victims and for the countries affected, in order to make the procedures for implementation of the current norms more agile.

Additionally, in order to reduce the traffic, it is also important make the visa granting policies homologous at the regional level, so that the elimination of restrictions for entry in one country shall not imply an aggravation of the phenomenon in others.

4.2         Information

In order to confront the problem, mechanisms must be activated to create linkages for the regular interchange of information among the countries affected. A model was agreed upon at the II Regional Conference on Migration in Panama. Furthermore, an information network at the national and Central American level must be implemented, in order to coordinate operations and intelligence efforts, which would allow pursuit of the criminal networks that are dedicated to migrant trafficking. This project involves all of the security forces and civil authorities for the detection, documentation, and deportation of the undocumented migration streams.

4.3         Institutional capacities

Similar to other offices in the region, the General Directorate of Population and Migration Policy in Honduras suffers from a shortage of human and material resources to fully carry out its functions. These factors affect service quality and border surveillance efficiency, as well as exposing their officials to different types of pressures.

Two senior managers and 318 employees, of whom 172 are distributed in the different migration control posts throughout the nation’s territory, currently staff the General Directorate of Population and Migration Policy. For example, the Guasaule office, the border post where the largest contingent of irregular migrants enters Honduran territory, currently has only four inspectors to handle a daily flow of 2500 persons, who are assisted at three windows, with only one person controlling the bridge. In a one-hour operation, few of which can be carried out with the current personnel, it is possible to intercept 30 individuals entering Honduran territory in an irregular manner.

Of the 320 staff members in the Institution, only 5% have university studies, 85% completed secondary education, and 10% have only primary schooling. The Institution makes significant efforts to provide training for all of its staff, promoting an interchange of experiences with other countries, giving courses, and providing study time for those employees receiving university studies. However, due to the lack of resources, these efforts are not always directly applicable to specific training in the field of illegal migrant trafficking and its consequences.

The low salaries and the work schedules (at the border posts, the officials work from six in the morning until ten at night, a schedule that is shared by the three or four officers) are another element affecting the recruitment phenomenon, since they have an impact on personnel availability and selection, where depending on the positions, a minimum of a high school diploma is required. This is why the proposed administrative measures to resolve this problem and effectively face the illegal migrant trafficking phenomenon include training, rotation, increased personnel, more supervision, competitive salaries, job incentives, and awareness and ethical reinforcement programs directed to the staff members related with the control of this phenomenon.

In the information processing area, there have been great efforts to introduce technology to the different offices, but there are still significant deficiencies. The Institution has an Information Technology Department and 144 terminals. Nevertheless, dedicated lines are in place only to the migration offices located in the airports. The other posts must carry out their registration of entries and departures of migrants and aliens in general manually, and in each case they must revise the records of impediments for entry or departure as corresponds. This means that they must set priorities in their efforts and relegate to a secondary priority any fieldwork to control illegal migrant trafficking.

With regard to means of transportation, the Honduran Directorate of Population and Migration Policy has no vehicles to bring to bear against this phenomenon, so that the delegates must use their personal vehicles in order to carry out these operations.

Neither are there communications equipment or firearms, counterpoised to the gamut of human and material resources available to the traffickers, who have radios, cell phones, trucks, pickups, safe houses, access to all kinds of information, and even, at times, the collaboration of the police authorities.

Technical cooperation should be sought for the acquisition of communications and computer equipment to develop databases that would allow an optimization of the information resources already available at the General Directorate of Migration, with corresponding training for the officials in charge of administering them.

4.4    Bilateral and Multilateral Cooperation

An effective battle against migrant trafficking requires the collaboration and coordination of the affected countries as well as the international agencies with competencies in this area. Bilateral cooperation must be focused on providing assistance in those areas in which the rest of the countries in the region lack resources.

In existing permanent fora within the international arena efforts are being made to coordinate a policy platform that would allow exposition and attention to be given to the problem and possible solutions when faced by the phenomenon of traffic in human beings. This platform is evolving according to the varying panoramas in the Central American region and its relations with the countries of North America.

5.         Conclusions

Treatment and eradication of the illegal traffic in migrants is a battle that corresponds to all of the affected countries. The nations within the region are making outstanding efforts to combat the phenomenon, but evidence indicates that these advances are of little significance. The trafficking networks and the number of migrants that use these methods grow from one day to the next. Similarly, the procedures used by the traffickers are becoming ever more specialized. Meanwhile, migration authorities find their resources for combating this scourge diminishing on an ongoing basis. Thus, cooperation from the international community is crucial for Honduras and the other countries in the region to be able to implement measures that will provide mid- and long-term results in the fight against illegal migrant trafficking.

The following recommendations are proposed within this framework:

Recommendations:

At the national level:

1.   Strengthen inter-institutional coordination in order to optimize the efforts made to combat this traffic.

2.   Promote the awareness of the members of the Legislative and Judicial Branches on the existence and consequences of illegal migrant trafficking, in order to define policies for its eradication at the national level, which would contemplate an effective application of the current laws and regulations.

3.   Channel technical, financial, and human resources to station well-trained and equipped personnel in the border migration posts.

4.   Carry out public information campaigns on the risks inherent in migrant trafficking, as well as the possibilities for legal migration.

5.   Promote the adoption of measures that would insure appropriate treatment and assistance for the migrants that are victims of trafficking and that would insure the protection of their fundamental rights.

6.   Adopt measures tending to avoid the corruption of officials related to the migration process.

7.   Adopt visa policies that are precise and permanent which would diminish the inconsistencies when issuing them and the margins of error of the migration officials that must apply them.

8.   Increase the security measures in passports and visas, by using present technology for their preparation and electronic instruments to read them, in order to detect adulterated documents.

9.   Reinforce the control over procedures for issuing travel documents for use within the region.

10. Implement a locale with basic services for holding those migrants that are intercepted in irregular conditions, while they are documented, and travel tickets are obtained for the execution of the expulsion orders.

At the regional and international levels

1.   Promote international cooperation through technical and financial assistance programs to create the conditions that would allow the problem to be confronted more effectively.

2.   Promote the adoption of coordinated measures with regard to policies, legislation, and activities at the national, regional, and international levels.

3.   Promote the adoption of international agreements against the illegal trafficking of migrants, which should consider not only the felonious aspects, but also the due treatment and protection of the migrants who are victims of trafficking.

4.   Encourage multilateral dialog and consultations, not only among the countries in the region, but also with countries from other regions, including an interchange of experiences in this field.

5.   Promote the inclusion of illegal migrant trafficking as a topic in the agendas and fora at the international level.

6.   Promote the collection, processing, and dissemination of information on this topic among the countries, in order to achieve a broader perspective of the problem at the regional level.

7.   Activate the information network in the member countries of the Regional Conference on Migration in order to achieve a constant interchange of information on the topic.

8.   Reinforce the participation of the international organizations related to the topic, in seminar, research, information dissemination, and technical cooperation activities, as well as those related to return and reintegration.

9.   Implement or strengthen return and reintegration programs for migrants in irregular conditions, with the collaboration of competent international agencies and the countries of origin and destination.

10. Establish permanent training programs on migration topics with the cooperation of competent international agencies and of countries with more experience in combating illegal migrant trafficking.

11. Promote the creation of mechanisms for reciprocal assistance with countries that have diplomatic representations in the countries of origin, in order to facilitate the acquisition of travel documents.

 

 

 

 

 

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