Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Climate change is affecting the migration of Hondurans, which has increased by 3,000% in the last four decades, so the state must guarantee education and health to its population and bet on eradicating corruption and impunity to attract investment, he warned. The Oxfam organization.
“Repeated cycles of drought for more than a decade have made livelihoods in the Dry Corridor increasingly fragile,” which links part of the southwest region to the center of the country, the Oxfam representative in Honduras told Efe, George Redman.
He noted that Oxfam had provided “a response to the drought” in the Dry Corridor, when the country was first hit by Eta in early November and Iota two weeks later.
“These phenomena have an impact, exacerbated by climate change, which in this case also puts pressure on families Dry Corridor, to migrate, ”he emphasized.
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Thousands of Hondurans set out in a caravan in mid-January with the idea of arriving in the United States in search of better living conditions and an escape from poverty and violence in the country, plagues exacerbated by the crisis that spawned the Covid-19 and the damage caused by Eta and Iota.
Regarding the repression in Guatemala against thousands of Honduran migrants trying to reach the United States by caravan, he said it was a “violation of the human rights of migrants.” that cannot be accepted and should not be given. “
The migration of Hondurans has increased by 3,000% over the past four decades, since 39,000 nationals lived in the United States in 1980 and has risen to 1.2 million in 2019, according to the study “Culture of Exile: Causes and Consequences of the Honduran. migration (1980-2020) “, prepared by Oxfam and the Honduran External Debt Social Forum (Fosdeh, private).
Despite its invisibility, women’s migration has also increased in recent years due to poverty, unemployment, violence and family reunification, Redman added.
In Honduras there are no initiatives aimed at preventing female migration, as the National Institute for Women and the Ciudad Mujer Program according to the study, they do not have a “comprehensive vision” to assist migrant women and have failed to consolidate a gender approach in public policy.
FIGHT CORRUPTION AND REDUCE EXONERATIONS
The causes of migration ‘are not problems that can be easily solved in one, two or even three periods of government, they are long-term projects, but in some now we have to start, ”said Redman.
According to Oxfam, the decision to migrate alone or in a caravan is understandable in the current context of Honduras, where 65% of its 9.3 million inhabitants live in poverty, 3.4 million people have employment problems and the country has an average of 11 homicides. per day.
The representative of the humanitarian organization advocated a reduction of the exemptions awarded to major companies in Honduras and look for mechanisms for these incentives to translate into job creation.
Honduras annually loses some 40,000 million lempiras (about 1,650 million dollars) through incentives for entrepreneurs.
“We have been greatly affected by the fact that there are major exemptions for large companies, but we do not see the same treatment, the same privileges for the family farming sector or micro and small businesses,” he stressed.
He stressed the importance of investing in the agricultural sector, one of which generates the most jobs, and in micro and small businesses (MiPymes).
“A real fight against corruption would reduce these losses and generate a greater capacity for resources to advance necessary policies” to reduce the causes forcing thousands of Hondurans to migrate irregularly, he stressed.
EDUCATION AND HEALTH
Honduras must generate well-being, thanks to the population with “high levels of education and health,” said Redman, who indicated that in the country since 2010, “each less and less “resources for those two sectors.
He assured that the neoliberal model “has failed to create employment in Honduras on the scale necessary to reduce underemployment and unemployment”.
Corruption, a scourge that has rooted in Honduras for over a century, and impunity, “they are preventing the investment from” reaching Honduras, “he stressed.
He also pointed out that it is necessary to “solve these two problems (corruption and impunity), which we know have existed for many years in Honduras”, as we see “worrying trends over the past year” (and) they make many companies, especially international ones, don’t see Honduras as a safe investment opportunity. ”
In Honduras, there is “disillusionment with democracy and a large proportion of citizens’ mistrust of state institutions because they have not received a response to poverty reduction, job creation and quality public services.” capacity and opportunities, ”he emphasized.
Mistrust “makes it very difficult to heal the wounds, reduce the polarization that exists in the country in order to achieve a minimal social and economic pact on how to address these issues,” he said.