Attachments
A. Situation Analysis
Description of the Disaster
• November 2015: The authorities at the National Migration Institute (INM for its acronym in Spanish) estimated that around 20,000 people – of mainly Cuban origin – passed through the region in 2014 and 2015.
• August 2016: The INM’s Regional Office and the Centre for Assistance to Irregular Migrants (CAMI for its acronym in Spanish) received requests for assistance from an average of 2,500 migrants per month.
• September 2016: The Honduran Red Cross signed a letter of understanding with the INM to coordinate the humanitarian response actions following the emergency that affected irregular migrants.
• October 2016: The HRC began implementing the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) operation:
The HRC provided services to around 5,500 migrants, thereby exceeding the original target population of 4,000 migrants; the services included basic first aid care, the distribution of personal hygiene kits and key messages to promote hygiene as well as a restoring family links (RFL), which was jointly implemented with the ICRC, so that people could contact their families through the provision of a free telephone call. The migrants were mainly of Caribbean origin from countries such as Haiti and Cuba, while a smaller percentage of migrants were from the continent of Africa, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Senegal, Angola, Kenya as well as Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal, India, among others.
The situation at the CAMI evolved in terms of the number of migrants entering the country, ending with a low level of migrants at the close of the operations. In January and February 2017, less than 1,200 migrants were received, meaning that the administrative process was faster. In addition, there was less demand for the HRC’s services; however, there was high demand for first aid care, which was received positively by the migrants.