Hurricanes Eta and Iota devastated Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua last month, displacing over half a million people who were already in precarious situations due to the coronavirus pandemic. As the countries struggle to rebuild during the double crisis, thousands of storm victims have had no choice but to flee North.
Shelters for hurricane victims are over capacity, forcing thousands to take shelter under highway or bridges. “Every day, about 20 new people arrive because they lost their land, their homes, and their crops in Honduras and Guatemala,” said a shelter director in Tenosique, Mexico. Additionally, the overcrowded conditions could lead to new spikes in coronavirus cases in shelters that are already lacking the proper resources to care for the victims.
The UN International Organization for Migration estimates that at least a third of the half million people displaced are expected to remain displaced from their homes for over three months, threatening their livelihoods and ability to rebuild their homes and businesses. Refugees who have lost everything to the storms feel they have no other choice than to look for work outside their countries.
Luis Salgado, whose home and fresh produce store in Honduras were destroyed by the hurricanes, explained how his income had already been dwindling due to the pandemic. The damage caused by the hurricanes left him in debt and unable to feed his family. “First the pandemic, and then the hurricane … we have no money for our children,” he said. Salgado and his neighbors decided to set out to cross Guatemala, then Mexico, in hopes of finding work in the United States. Thousands of other Central American refugees have embarked on similar journeys northbound, forming caravans through Facebook and WhatsApp groups to coordinate the efforts.
Others, like Kevin Ventura, are also fleeing worsening gang violence. Before the storms, Ventura had considered escaping Honduras after receiving death threats from a gang that had attempted to recruit him to sell drugs. When the storms destroyed his home and forced his family into shelters, he felt even more exposed and decided to head for the Guatemalan border. Giovanni Bassau of the UN Refugee Agency explained how gangs have infiltrated the storm shelters, taking advantage of the instability that he expects will allow such groups to flourish.
The storms were expected to lead to an increase in migration into the United States. The years following Hurricane Mitch in 1998 prompted the first significant wave of Hondurans migrating to the United States, many of whom were granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The impending migration crisis will become a test for the incoming Biden administration. On the campaign trail, Biden had proposed a $4 billion plan to address the factors driving Central American migration, like poverty and gang violence. The pandemic and damage caused by the storms, however, is likely to further complicate the situation.