Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and his Honduran counterpart, Eduardo Enrique Reina, yesterday described as “successful” the bilateral program on circular migration, especially after Spain’s recent commitment at the Summit of the Americas to double the labor channels for Honduran workers under this plan.
The “human ties that unite us” are the “true pillar of Spain’s relationship with Honduras,” said José Manuel Albares during the joint press conference with Reina at the ministerial headquarters of the Palacio de Viana in Madrid. “In the last five years, the number of Hondurans living in Spain, contributing to our welfare, has practically tripled,” as “we have gone from 43,000 in 2015 to 122,000 in 2021,” he continued. In addition, he added, “many of them have already obtained dual nationality, which further strengthens these human ties.”
“The Honduran community residing in Spain makes an important contribution to the Spanish economy and also to the culture of Spain,” which “has been reinforced with the start of the circular migration pilot program that has been put into effect in the first half of 2022,” said the foreign minister. It is “a very successful program, because Spanish businessmen are very satisfied with the work and integration of Honduran citizens, and I have conveyed this to the Chancellor,” he added.
The circular migration program between Spain and Honduras, signed in May 2021 by the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, and her then Honduran counterpart, Lisandro Rosales, and approved last December by the Congress of Deputies, allows to regulate in an orderly and coherent manner the existing labor migration flows between both States in order to prevent irregular immigration. The program provides a temporary work opportunity for Hondurans, articulating a procedure for the selection of workers at origin and regulating the labor conditions and social rights of the workers.
During the recent Summit of the Americas, held in early June in Los Angeles (USA), the Spanish government (which attended as an observer) pledged to “double the number of labor pathways for Hondurans to participate in Spain’s circular migration programs”, according to the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, results of the US government and foreign partners, released by the White House.
Regarding this commitment, Albares explained in yesterday’s press conference that the current program is “fundamentally for picking berries”, but “the idea is to expand this program”. “We have talked about it and, obviously, it is the Minister (of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis) Escrivá who is in charge of implementing it, but given the demand that there is and the good reception of the Honduran citizens, that is exactly the idea”.
For his part, Eduardo Enrique Reina declared that it is “a successful program” that “provides benefits for both peoples and governments, and above all for this complex issue that we face in many Latin American nations, such as the issue of migration”. “In the case of Honduras, we will maintain the effort so that the profiles of the people who enjoy this program are of the highest level and the highest standard for mutual benefit,” he assured. “We have received with great satisfaction the announcement of doubling this possibility for more Hondurans and will soon move on to other levels, not only in agricultural harvesting, but also in terms of professionals and students, which can also be an example for other migratory flows in an orderly manner, both with Europe and in the region,” he added.
During the press conference, both ministers informed of Honduras’ interest in hosting an Ibero-American Summit in the future and Minister Reina expressed his wish that a visit of President Xiomara Castro to Spain could be scheduled “soon”. King Philip VI attended the inauguration of the Honduran president in Tegucigalpa on January 27.
