Honduras records more than 200 arrests for human trafficking this year

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Honduras recorded this year more than 200 arrests for the crime of human trafficking, a scourge whose fight requires a “shared responsibility”, official sources said Thursday.

At the presentation in Tegucigalpa of the campaign “Think twice”, promoted by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Honduran Deputy Foreign Minister, Nelly Jerez, said that her country has captured “more than 200 people” for human trafficking.

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“The number of human traffickers is immense, this year alone, we have captured more than 200 of them in the caravans, the (social) networks, and WhatsApp groups,” the official stressed.

She pointed out in her speech that 318 families today suffer for the loss of a “son or daughter, and they suffered in that migratory route” to the United States.

MORE THAN 600 MISSING PERSONS

Human trafficking involves “extortion (and) kidnapping”, said the Honduran vice-chancellor, who affirmed that this scourge is “a business” that causes “family disintegration” and takes “our young people”.

Jerez also denounced that “more than 600” Hondurans have disappeared since 2014 on their journey to the United States, which is why she considers that the IOM campaign invites young people to “think twice” before migrating.

She stressed the need to “work on the components so that young people do not have to leave the country” and, to this end, the authorities must guarantee them “a real education, their job opportunity, but also bet that they can have a little more, leave the country with a work visa safely.”

The campaign includes the dissemination of audiovisual information with testimonies, advice, social experiments and music, as well as the development of community outreach activities, aimed at helping young people to avoid “situations of deception or scams, to learn about regular migration and identify development opportunities,” according to the IOM.

Think twice is an initiative of IOM’s Regional Program on Migration, with support from the US Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migrants.

RISKS OF IRREGULAR MIGRATION

The National Coordinator of the IOM Regional Program on Migration, Marisol Calix, told Efe that young people should know “the risks of irregular migration, as well as the consequences of taking a migration route without information.” She stressed the importance of young people having “sufficient tools, to be multipliers of information and to know the risks of irregular migration.”

The campaign aims for young people to be “multipliers” and that if they decide to migrate, they do so in an “orderly and safe manner,” Calix added. According to the IOM expert, ensuring that migration is orderly and safe involves replicating “all the knowledge that young people have acquired” as part of the campaign.

Calix affirmed that combating the scourge of human trafficking is a “shared responsibility” of States and the international community.