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Honduras + 3 more

Central America: Population Movement - Information Bulletin n° 1

Attachments

ARO is publishing this special report on population movement in Central America due to the high impact, flows and pre-existing dynamics in the region and the importance of reflecting the joint coordination between NSs and IFRC to meet the needs of populations affected by COVID-19 and Migration.

The situation

From October 2018 to January 2020, "caravans" have become a new modality of migration, on the basis of the hypothesis that mobilization attracts people due to the that offers security to migrants and visibility on the route where many Central American migrants have disappeared or been kidnapped, and a way to evade the high price of hiring a smuggler to aid passage to the United States border. The massive population movements continued this first month of the year, registering a massive movement of an estimate between 7,000 and 9,000 migrants that have crossed into the country since 15 January, including many families and children.

The migrant caravan is heading towards the US to escape an economy battered by the pandemic and hurricanes. They are bound towards Mexico, where the government has already deployed security forces and riot police.

Moreover, migrants have been disproportionately affected by the impact of COVID-19. Many of them have been unable to comply with the preventative measures necessary to keep them healthy and safe during the COVID-19 outbreak, due to limited access to essential services – such as health, water, sanitation and hygiene – as well as poor and unsafe living and working conditions. COVID-19, together with social exclusion, discrimination, violence, and climate-related disasters happening at the same time, with a magnitude rarely seen before in Central America, poses new humanitarian challenges. Eta and Iota have destroyed livelihoods across a region that was already facing an economic crisis and where the income of thousands of families had already been severely depleted due to the pandemic. People are at risk of resorting to coping strategies such as selling their animals and properties, eating less food, and abandoning their hometowns to look for new ways of generating income.