The Diplomat
Next February 23, the agreement between Spain and Honduras regarding the regulation and management of labor migration flows between the two countries, signed in Madrid on May 28, 2021, will enter into force.
The objective of the agreement, published this past Saturday in the Official State Gazette (BOE), is to regulate in an orderly and coherent manner the existing labor migration flows between both States, to deepen the general framework of cooperation and friendship between the two countries and to prevent irregular immigration, in order to guarantee a safe, orderly and regular migration and with special attention to the community of Hondurans in Spain. According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) for 2020, more than 120,000 Hondurans currently reside in Spain, mainly in Catalonia and Madrid.
The agreement articulates a procedure for the selection of workers at origin and regulates the working conditions and social rights of the workers. It also provides for the obligation of readmission, by either country and at the request of the other, of any person who does not or no longer satisfies the requirements for entry or residence applicable in its territory. The agreement is monitored by a Joint Coordination Committee.
Under the agreement, the responsible authorities of the host State will communicate to the responsible authorities of the State of origin the demand for workers, taking into account existing job offers. For their part, the authorities of the State of origin will inform the responsible authorities of the other State of the possibilities of satisfying this demand for workers.
Workers shall have the rights and benefits granted to them by the legislation of the host State, and no discrimination may be established on the grounds of race, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, opinion, trade union membership, origin or social status. The two parties will also coordinate support programs for workers who wish to return voluntarily to their country of origin.
Since the beginning of 2020, the Honduran authorities have made several requests to Spain for the possibility of participating in the program of collective hiring at origin carried out by the General Directorate of Migration of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration. The competent Spanish authorities, after evaluating the proposal, decided to comply with the Honduran request and agreed to the adoption of an international pact between the two countries on migration flows.
Negotiations on the text were carried out from the beginning of 2021 and concluded with the signing of the agreement, which was carried out on May 28, 2021 (after authorization by the Council of Ministers) by the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, and her Honduran counterpart, Lisandro Rosales, coinciding with the official visit to Madrid of the Foreign Minister -and the Honduran Minister of Labor and Social Security, Olvin Villalobos, among others- to participate in the first Meeting of the Spain-Honduras Political Consultation Mechanism, provided for by the Memorandum of Understanding between both Ministries. The text was authorized by the Council of Ministers in October 2021 and approved by both Houses of Parliament at the end of the same year.
