HONDURAS: Honduran migrants are deported as the U.S. gets tough on the ever-growing influx of child migrants making the dangerous journey in search of a better life

Record ID: 348932

  • Title: HONDURAS: Honduran migrants are deported as the U.S. gets tough on the ever-growing influx of child migrants making the dangerous journey in search of a better life
  • Date: 18th July 2014
  • Summary: SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS (JULY 18, 2014) (REUTERS) PLANE ON RUNWAY / PEOPLE STANDING AROUND PLANE DEPORTED MIGRANTS GETTING OFF PLANE GENERAL VIEW OF PLANE WOMAN HOLDING YOUNG CHILD WALKING ON RUNWAY VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS GETTING OFF PLANE BUS AND VEHICLE ON RUNWAY (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) HONDURAN FIRST LADY, ANA GARCIA DE HERNANDEZ, SAYING "Arriving are 66 people, 31 w
  • Embargoed: 2nd August 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Honduras
  • Country: Honduras
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA443BW861V3WXLXGV0N5CYMYTB
  • Story Text: The American dream ended for this plane-load of deported Hondurans arriving back home on Friday (July 18) as U.S. President Barack Obama vows to speed up the process of sending back undocumented immigrant children from Central America.
    Fleeing violence and poverty, record numbers of children from Honduras have crossed into the United States over the past year, testing U.S. border facilities and sparking intense debate about how to solve the problem.
    Upon their arrival back home in the violent city of San Pedro Sula, migrants were processed back into the country with dozens of mothers and minors among them.

    "Arriving are 66 people, 31 women, 19 children, 14 girls and two adolescents. They are mothers who had left various areas of the country. As we've seen they've arrived very sad, distressed, worried, the majority in debt," said Honduran first lady, Ana Garcia de Hernandez.
    These deported migrants are returning home to a country with the world's highest murder rate, afflicted by intractable gang bloodshed that curdled as Mexican drug cartels expanded into the nation of some 8 million people.
    The head of this immigration office for returning citizens, Valdette Willeman, told Reuters that Honduran society need to do its bit to help deported migrants re-settle back home.

    "I think that when the mothers, the immigrants arrive here they need to sense the support of their community. It's not worth it, that with those leaving here everything comes to an end, as if we just erase everything. They return to their department, their municipality, their suburb and what, who am I? It's a commitment that everyone should take up, all of Honduran society," she said.
    Once processed into the country, deported migrants are given a bag of basic supplies and the offer of assistance to find employment and settle back into life back home.
    This mother of five was deported alongside her children. She told Reuters that if she could not find work in Honduras, she would try to leave the country again.

    "They (human traffickers) charges us 6,000 dollars and we've come back with debt because we didn't have the money. We came here (to Honduras) hoping to get a job, and if they (Honduran government) don't we will need to leave again. That's our only choice. We hope it's true (the help being received from officials). (Reporter: How long are you willing to wait (before going back?) How much time they didn't tell us, but we hope it will be soon because we need to eat daily," said mother, Olga Guerra.
    During the eight months ending June 15, some 52,000 children were detained at the U.S. border with Mexico, most of them from Central America, according to Washington. That was double the previous year's tally and tens of thousands more are believed to have slipped through.
    Obama's administration has stressed that Central American children who cross the border illegally will be sent home and earlier this month said it would speed up the deportation process.
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