EFE/14ymedio, Tegucigalpa/Havana, 5 July 2023 — More than 24,000 migrant minors in transit to the United States crossed Honduras in the first half of 2023, 181% more compared to the 8,555 who entered in the same period of 2022, according to data consulted this Wednesday by EFE.
Between January and June, about 24,030 irregular minors entered Honduras, of which 14,127 were boys and 9,903 girls, according to a report by the Honduran National Institute of Migration (INM).
Of the total migrant minors who entered the country 39.1% (9,410) were Venezuelans, the nationality that predominates in the migratory wave to the United States.
The second largest nationality of minors who entered Honduras were Ecuadorians, 5,147, followed by Cubans (1,481), Brazilians (1,082) and Chileans (1,036).
Of the total number of girls and boys intercepted in Honduras, 39.6% or 9,527 were age 10 or younger, and 14,503 (60.4%) were 11 or older, the INM explained.
In 2022, Honduras intercepted about 37,469 migrant minors, mostly from Cuba and Venezuela, according to official statistics.
In recent years, the Central American country has become a transit point for migrants who cross Central America in order to reach the United States.
According to the INM, from January 1 of this year to June 25, an irregular flow of 128,133 migrants has been recorded, of whom 9,366 were nationals of the Island.
Cubans have complained that during their time in Honduras they face the collection of fines by immigration authorities and extortion by the police, who demand 20 dollars at the checkpoints, says Rigoberto, a layman with the Jesús Está Vivo evangelization center of the Immaculate Conception church in Danlí, Honduras.
Many of the migrants who pass through this nation enter through “blind spots” known to the “coyotes,” human traffickers who do not always take them to the border with Guatemala, according to authorities and human rights organizations.
According to Doctors without Borders (MSF), the majority of migrants arrive in Honduras “with multiple medical and humanitarian needs.”
The migrants, according to their accounts, are victims of assaults, rapes, kidnappings and other risky situations during their trip.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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