Civil Society from Nicaragua and Honduras Shared their Advances Related to the Protection of Migrants

In order to enable a space of dialogue and coordination among civil society organizations that provide services and attention to migrants in the border between Nicaragua and Honduras, the International Organization for Migration of the United Nations (IOM) organized in Choluteca (Honduras) a cross border meeting, which had as a result the exchange of best practices and the identification of possible synergies.

These cross-border meetings help maintaining a close communication at the bilateral level, in which IOM provides technical support to entities at both sides of the border by sharing tools that help addressing the challenges of migration and contribute to promote safe and orderly migration. 

“This dialogue will contribute to facilitating the bilateral coordination process that help identifying the priority needs of migrants in conditions of vulnerability in the border area between Honduras and Nicaragua”, established Melanie Gomez, coordinator of the Mesoamerica Program in Honduras.

This region is a high transit area for migrants who´s final destination is the United States of America. The geographical location of Honduras in the continent makes it into a must transit place for migrants.

Heydi González, coordinator of the Mesoamerica Program in Nicaragua, explained that the meeting included civil society organizations from Chinandega, since “according to the migration profile of Nicaragua, Chinandega is the second department of origin of migrants in the country, accounting for 11.5% of the total of Nicaraguans abroad, in addition of being a border region”.

In the meeting, the participating civil society organizations from Nicaragua included: the Jesuit Service forMigrants, the Association for the Survival and Local Development (ASODEL), Nicasmigrantes, and the Women Movement of Chinandega; and from Honduras: the Human Mobility Pastoral, the Migrant Family Committee of Choluteca, the National Commission for Human Rights (CONADEH), the National Office for Women, the Network Against Violence of Choluteca, the Social Pastoral Caritas of Choluteca, the Psychologist College, and the Fermin Mayorga Institute (CORPUS).

One of the main advances was to identify thematic areas that need to be addressed bi-nationally, such as trafficking in persons, the smuggling of migrants, migrant children, youth, and the attention of migrant women that face violence during their migration route. The civil society organizations appreciated the meeting and requested IOM to continue supporting bi-national coordination spaces in the Honduras-Nicaragua border area.

This initiative was possible thanks to the support of the Mesoamerica Program, that seeks to contribute to the development and implementation of strategies in Mesoamerica for the promotion of regular, orderly and safe migration, ensuring the human rights protection of migrants.