Honduras - Honduran officials of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security are this week gathering in the capital Tegucigalpa and in the city San Pedro Sula to exchange information and best practices and receive training in labor migration management.

The three-day workshop ending tomorrow in Tegucigalpa is part of the IOM Regional Project Improving Labour Migration Management in Central America and the Dominican Republic funded by the Ministry of Labor of Canada, brought together some 25 officials to better understand the challenges and opportunities of organized labor migration, while focusing on developing policies, promoting internal coordination and strengthening the capacity of officials to protect the human and labor rights of both, Honduran migrant workers abroad and foreign workers in Honduras.

The participants are focusing on the main priorities of labor migration for Honduras, including developing public policies to increase labor migration opportunities; the gender perspective when designing labor migration policies; international and regional legal frameworks, bilateral agreements, circular labor migration, labor market strategies, employment protection and irregular labor migration. The two events aim to increase the existing capacity of officials to become agents of change within their departments.

“To many Hondurans participating in an orderly labor migration scheme means a secure future for their families.   The IOM-facilitated labor migration programs provide an employment contract, fair wages, social security benefits, safe transportation to their destination, and in some cases the possibility of applying for permanent residence and to reunite with the spouse and children,” explained Likza Salazar, Head of the IOM Office in Honduras.

Since 2007, when IOM and the Honduran Government signed a Cooperation Agreement on Labor Migration, IOM Honduras has assisted more than 550 Hondurans to find employment in agriculture and meat processing plants in Canada and Spain.

Increased insecurity, poverty, lack of employment opportunities and political crisis has pushed Hondurans to migrate in search of a better life. 

According to the US Census of 2010 there are more than 633,000 Hondurans living in the United States.

A recently published study confirmed that some 80,000 Honduras leave the country each year in search of work.  The same report concluded that of every 100 Hondurans who leave their country only 7 per cent do so in a regular fashion; 17 per cent  manage to reach their intended final destination; 75 per cent  are returned from Mexico; and 1 per cent  decide to stay in Mexico or Guatemala and not continue North to the United States.

A similar workshop will be held later this week (12-13 December) in the city of San Pedro Sula, targeting some 25 participants from the Northern regional offices of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

For more information please contact

Evelyn Andino
IOM Honduras
Email: eandino@iom.int
Tel: + 504.222.01 104.