Facing deportation or forced return to Honduras

You and your family may have to return to Honduras, either due to deportation or forced return. If you face this possibility, you should plan ahead to make the process as simple and safe as possible for you and your family. 

Breathe. Know that your family and community are holding you in their thoughts and prayers, and it is your own inner strength that will get you through this difficult transition. Take good care. 

1. General cautions: 

• To stay safe, make a friend on the bus or plane. Stay together to support each other. 
• Be alert and calm. Blend in and comply with authority. 
• Avoid casual street encounters, including eye contact. Don’t look vulnerable, but also don’t look overconfident. 
• Be prepared for bribes. Have $40 to $100 in cash in $10 and $20 bills. Keep them in different pockets. 
• Keep contact information for your family in Honduras (and all documents that prove your identity and deportation status) on you, not in your bag. 
• Don’t use an offered cell phone to call your family. If you come across a trusted organization or a public institution, you can ask to make a phone call. If you have a cell phone, share your location with people you trust. Update your family as you travel and use agreed upon signals in case of danger. 
• There have been cases of scams, extortion, and kidnapping, and you should do everything possible to be safe. Create a code word with your family to confirm your identity over the phone, or to verify that a request for money is indeed coming from you. 

2. Cautions for Honduras 

• Be very careful about whom you trust. 
• Keep information close. Listen to the advice of people close to you. 
• Take advice from friends or family about how best to stay safe. 
• There is not open violence everywhere in San Pedro Sula (or in the rest of Honduras), but certain neighborhoods are very dangerous. Drug cartels and maras do operate here, but only in certain neighborhoods. It can change from one block to the next. 
• The neighborhoods closest to the airport are controlled by MS-13 and the 18th Street gang. Take special caution in these areas. 
• If you have tattoos, be prepared to wear long sleeves and explain what your tattoos mean. This won't necessarily save you, but depending on where you are going, your tattoos might be the thing that puts you most at risk. 
• While advice to "not look vulnerable or too cocky" applies in Mexico, in Honduras sometimes either of those things is a smart strategy. 

3. Repatriation 

People are flown to Honduras from several detention centers in the U.S. Their wrists and ankles are shackled until about 10 minutes before they land. All deportees are sent to San Pedro Sula, the industrial capital of the country (not the political capital, Tegucigalpa), near the northern coast.  

Minors and their families are taken on a bus from the airport to a center called Belen, run by the OIM (Organización Internacional Para Las Migraciones) and DINAF (Directorate for Children, Youth and Family). At Belen, they are interviewed, given food, have access to a psychologist, and can make phone calls. In rare cases, they may stay the night there, although most families leave after being processed. Unaccompanied minors must be picked up by a parent or guardian. Until then, they stay in Belen. 

Adults deported by the U.S. are processed at the CAMR (Centro de Atención al Migrante Retornado), a center at the San Pedro Sula airport. After getting off the plane, they are bused to CAMR. CAMR is run by the Scalabrini nuns through the Pastoral de la Movilidad Humana. As people file into the center, their belongings are returned to them. 

CAMR PROVIDES:  

• Food and coffee  
• Access to medical and psychological care  
• A representative from Cancillería can help with getting documents people need.  
• Phone calls   

People wait in line to be interviewed one by one by a volunteer collecting basic information (on any given day, there are between five and 15 volunteers conducting these interviews). If these volunteers suspect that someone is at risk, they send them to a representative from the Norwegian Refugee Council, who takes them into a separate room for a more detailed interview to determine if they want and are eligible for other kinds of protection.  

AFTER PROCESSING AT CAMR: 

• After processing at CAMR, people are free to leave. A bus is available to San Pedro Sula’s Central Bus Terminal, where onward travel to other parts of the country is possible. Those without money can request a voucher at CAMR for bus fare to their hometown on a designated bus line; individuals with cash are not eligible for this assistance. Currency exchange from dollars to lempiras is available on site. 
• Once they leave CAMR, deportees are largely on their own. While government agencies and NGOs offer reintegration assistance and programs, access to these services is limited. CAMR can provide some guidance on available options. 
• UMAR (Unidad Municipal de Atención al Retornado), located in many municipalities, are clearinghouses that direct people to other forms of assistance. 
• Several NGOs offer skills training and microenterprise support, including the Federación Luterana in Olancho, the Comisión de Acción Social Menonita in San Pedro Sula, and the Red Cross, which is expanding similar programs in Ceiba, Progreso, and Tegucigalpa. 
• The International Organization for Migration (OIM) provides limited assistance to deportees, and Casa Alianza runs programs specifically for deported minors. 
• As of June 2017, NGOs have not been permitted inside deportee reception centers (Belén, CAMR, and Omoa), significantly hindering their ability to directly connect deportees with available services. 

4. Honduras Identification  

• Unlike people deported to Mexico, most Hondurans return with current ID (as they were not living in the U.S. for long). However, those who don't have their cédula, as it is called, do not generally report having much trouble getting a new one. 
• Everyone in Honduras has a unique ID number, which is used for everything. The main issue in getting a new ID is having to wait in long lines!