Response to COVID-19
COVID-19 has had a great impact on all of the world, and migrant communities in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean are no exception. Click each country to learn how the Western Hemisphere Program is helping fight the virus.
- Collaboration in the attention of extraregional migrants in transit.
- Donation to SENAFRONT: fase masks, paper towels, gallons of soap and bottles of alcohol.
- Delivery of 405 grocery bags, each designed to feed 5 to 6 people.
- Donation of professional cleaning equipment, sports and recreation items and polarized blankets.
- Donation of professional cleaning equipment, sports and recreation items and polarized blankets.
- Intercultural mediation with Haitian migrants stranded in the Darien.
- Delivery of basic computing equipment, to facilitate SENAFRONT's work in migrant reception stations.
- Production and distribution of 24 banners with information about preventing COVID-19, in five different languages.
- Placement of playground for the recreation of migrant children at the ERM Los Planes.
- Participation in meeting with high-level national authorities, to discuss the migratory situation at the Darien.
- Delivery of construction supplies to better infrastructure at the ERM San Vicente.
- Management of food donations provided by Panamanian civil society and private sector.
- Support in the installation of the new Migrant Reception Station (MRS) in the community of San Vicente.
- Donation of lamps, megaphones and lighting towers to the General Directorate of Migration and Aliens, to be used in the North Bicentennial Migration Station. (In Spanish)
- Delivery of 1300 surgical N-95 masks to the Costa Rican Ministry of Health. (In Spanish)
- Support for the Professional Migration Police, with the donation of potable water containers to help them maintain recommended standards of hygiene to fight the pandemic.
- IOM supports Costa Rica in the design of tool for mapping resources available in the emergency, in support of the Costa Rican National Emergency Commission (CNE).
- IOM accompanies the creation of a protocol to receive vulnerable migrants and asylum claimants in the context of COVID- 19, with specific provisions for the reception of migrant children.
- Along with DGME, created telephone services to fulfill the needs that the Municipal Information Hubs in Upala and Desamparados are unable to while protecting the health of migrants.
- Along with IOM, PAHO-WHO and DGME, an information campaign for migrants was launched. It contains materials in English, Spanish and French, and explains the measures recommended by the health authorities.
- Production of informative video about mental health in the context of COVID-19, along with the Ministry of Health and PAHO/WHO.
- Online session about migration in emergency contexts, produced along with UCR's Geography School and the RIGEN collective.
- Donation of hygiene and personal protection to the National Institute for Women, to protect migrant women who suffer gender-based violence.
- Donation of surgical masks to the General Directorate of Migration and Aliens, for use in the northern border area.
- Donation of 300 hygiene kits to the Department of Human Services. This department serves the most vulnerable members of society including migrant families, women and girls facing gender-based violence, sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
- Donation of medical equipment, biosafety suits and hygiene supplies.
- Information activities in borders, in collaboration with INM.
- Production of information materials about mental health and COVID-19.
- Online course launched in collaboration with UNDP and the State Commission for Human Rights of Baja California. Addressed to government officials and the private sector, it will strive to integrate migrants in the economic recovery efforts after the pandemic.
- Exchange of plans and knowledge with the Ministry of Health, sharing protocols and best practices with the Mexican authorities.
- Collaboration with the National Institute for Migration to produce informative materials in several languages.
- Creation of materials addressed at people coming in to migration regulation offices, with the aim of informing how to minimize risk of contracting COVID-19 and informing the local and national channels to follow up on migration issues. Campaign created in coordinatino with the National Institute for Migration, UNHCR and UNICEF.
- Donation of 120 hygiene and protection kits to the Information Hub in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.
- Delivery of food and hydration kits to 20 migrants stranded in the border zone.
- Assistance to migrants who currently live in El Salvador and have found themselves out of jobs due to the crisis.
- Management with institutions and local governments for future assistance and follow-up in orientation of regularization processes when the emergency passes, through the Information Hubs.
- Application of the Livelihoods survey to the returned migrant population in the context of COVID-19
- Campaign to Support the reintegration of recently returned migrants, and for the attention to their health in the context of COVID-19. (Spanish)
- Collaboration with the Guatemalan Institute for Migration to post information in 15 migration stations, warning that migratory checkpoints do not require any fees, thus preventing scams.(Spanish)
- Support to Haitian migrants who decided to return home, and collaboration with IOM Haiti to implement sanitary measures at their return, thus preventing the spread of COVID-19.
- Delivery of 1900 grocery kits to Venezuelan and Haitian families who have found themselves vulnerable due to the COVID-19 crisis.
- Information Hub staff has collaborated with the Vice-Presidency of the Dominican Republic’s Administration of Social Subsidies (ADESS) in the collection of information for the “Stay Home” program.
- Translation to Haitian creole of a survey, currently in joint development with UNDP.
- Support in the dissemination of information to vulnerable populations.
- A bilingual song by singer-songwriter Xiomara Fortuna, written in Spanish and Creole, to prevent COVID-19.
- Use of megaphone advertising to bring messages about preventing COVID-19, in Spanish and Creole, to communities with irregular access to mass media.
- Production of Creole-language posters to prevent COVID-19 in the construction sector.
- Donation of equipment for migrant attention centers and the National Institute for Migration’s information call center.
- Donation of equipment and hygiene kits to equip Migrant Attention Centers.
- Strengthening of the Migration Statistics Center, a virtual platform that will allow to observe the migration phenomenon in Honduras.
Materials
Sanitary and migration situation in entry points in the north of Central America. Honduras / June-August 2020.
Sanitary and migration situation in entry points in the north of Central America. El Salvador / June-August 2020.
Sanitary and migration situation in entry points in the north of Central America. Guatemala/ June-August 2020.
Summary of Main Findings of the Survey: COVID-19 Efects on Migrants in Central America and Mexico
Standard Operating Procedures for Front-Line Border Officials at the Point of Entry in Response to COVID-19 Outbreak
An aid for Information Hub personnel and migrant advocates dealing with COVID-19 (in Spanish)
An informative video that gathers WHO recommendations to protect ourselves against COVID-19 (in Spanish)
Guidance for employers and business to enhance migrant worker protection during the current health crisis