Honduran migrant caravan: the decision between documents and basic decency

This time, migrants are not hiding anymore. They have screamed to the world that they are mass migrating because they are dying due to the violence and a repressive government, and because they are not able to feed their families back home. They are not in the shadows anymore. This time, they decided to do it together, in the thousands, and in the middle of the day.

   Hondurans have become a worldwide trending topic after thousands of people are fleeing their country in order to apply for asylum once they make it to the United States. Why are they doing this? Their main reasons are the same ones that have motivated mass migration from Central America in the last four decades: poverty, lack of opportunities, and violence, among others. What is different this time? Hondurans (just like other Central Americans) have mass migrated for decades, but they have always done it hiding, in the shadows, hiring coyotes to smuggle them into the United States.

   However, this time, they are not hiding anymore. On the contrary, they have screamed to the world that they are mass migrating because they are dying due to a highly repressive dictatorial government and because they are not able to feed their families back home. Furthermore, they are not in the shadows anymore, and they are not leaving in small groups with the coyotes. This time, they decided to migrate together, in the thousands, in the middle of the day and without the expensive (and dangerous) services from the coyotes. Leaving in groups of thousands of people gives them more protection from the hardships that they usually face on the migration route: violations to their basic human rights, human trafficking, and rapes. And so they decided to walk together more than 4,000 kilometers.

   However, the fact that Hondurans are fleeing in the thousands represents a huge political problem for the governments of the transit countries, and a huge moral and ethical dilemma for the people who are watching migrants pass in front of their houses. It is a political problem because Donald Trump, the president of the United States, knows about the migrant caravan and has threatened the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico with withdrawing the economic help if they let these migrants pass through their territories. What can the governments of the transit countries do? Should they prioritize their territorial sovereignty and guarantee their financial assistance, or should they recognize that people are migrating because their governments are not able to provide the basic conditions for them?

   On the other hand, Central America has a free mobility agreement, the CA-4, which allows nationals from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua to move freely among those four countries, as long as they present their ID at the border checkpoint. This would make the transit from Honduran migrants through El Salvador and Guatemala very easy. The problem is that, according to the Salvadoran and Guatemalan migration authorities, many of these migrants do not even possess a valid ID. Here comes the ethical dilemma: should the transit countries let these destitute migrants and their children cross their borders, or should they deny them the entry? Furthermore, Hondurans need a visa to enter Mexican territory. Most of them do not have it due to their impoverished conditions. Therefore, Mexicans and their government are facing the same ethical dilemma.

   This ethical dilemma worsens due to the fact that Central Americans and Mexicans are amongst the countries that more migrants send to the United States, and about the half of them have an irregular migrant status in that country. People from these countries are continuously fighting to improve the treatment that irregular (and regular) migrants have in the United States, as well as to guarantee the respect to their basic human rights. How can the transit countries then advocate for the rights of their irregular migrants in the United States while not guaranteeing the same thing for Honduran migrants who are trying to apply for asylum in their final destination?

   Any migration process requires certain documents so that the migrant can cross a border. That is the law, and the law should be always obeyed. This is why, in cases such as this, we face a big dilemma between the law and basic human decency. Understandably, for many law-abiding citizens, a piece of paper is more important than the life threatening situation that a migrant is facing. And therefore, they should not cross the border, even if not being able to do so might represent death for that person. These law-abiding people also point that there is the possibility that some migrants are takin advantage of the situation in order to achieve their malicious ends. However, it has been proven once and again that most of migrants are not criminals, and that the only thing they want is to work to provide for their families. Should we let thousands dye because of a few bad people?

   Another point that must be taken into consideration is that the United States, the country of destination of these migrants, has somehow contributed to the social and political crises that many Latin American countries face. And migration is only one of the consequences. In the case of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez violated the Constitution in order to run for the reelection in the presidential elections of 2017. And even though all the international observers expressed their concern about the validity of the elections results, the United States was one of the first countries to recognize the new self-imposed president. When Hondurans went to the street to protest, the dictatorial government repressed them and killed many.

   The governments in the northern triangle of Central America, on the other hand, are in debt to their people. Several corrupt administrations have used the government to get rich instead of improving the conditions for their people. Because of that, people cannot live in peace and do not find the opportunities they need to work and to study. Education, health and work are not accessible to everyone, as it should be. By migrating, people are doing nothing more than trying to improve their lives and the lives of those they love.

Ana Figueroa