HONDURAS AND ITS HISTORICAL INSTITUTIONALITY IN MIGRATION MATTERS

MIGRATION LAWS WHICH HAVE BEEN APPLIED IN THE PAST Migration Law ( 1934 – 1945 ) Immigration Law (1946 – 1953) Immigration and Identity Law (1953 – 1970) Population and Migration Policy Law (1970 – 2004)

Migration and Immigration Law, Decree No. 208, December 12, 2003 Establishing the General Directorate of Migration and Immigration (effective as of May 2004) CURRENT MIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION LAW

REFORMS TO THE MIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION LAW PROJECT 2007

ADVANTAGES 1.Preserves the principles of legality, solidarity, equality, social justice, and the respect of human rights of migrants, and the principles of transparency and accountability are implemented in migration management. 2.Homologates legal aspects with other Central American laws, in compliance with declarations from Presidential Summits and Puebla Process objectives.

3. Reclassification of migration qualities for resident foreigners. 4. Allows the General Directorate to submit a proposal of the Public Migration Policy to the President of the Republic. 5. Based on provisions regarding free movement from Presidential Summits, the law has been expanded and is now updated, flexible, and more open than restrictive. ADVANTAGES

6. The General Directorate has been authorized to implement – through agreement – the characteristics of migration documents and travel documents. 7. Authorizes the General Directorate to process residence applications. In the past, this was a responsibility of the Secretariat of the Interior and of Justice, in compliance with presidential mandates. The aim is homologating and standardizing migration procedures in the region. ADVANTAGES

8. Authorizes the General Directorate to order – in accordance with the law – the expulsion of foreigners who have committed infractions or crimes in the country. 9. The crime of Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons is being considered, in collaboration with relevant authorities, in order to be suppressed. 10.The career of Migration and Immigration Services is being implemented.

11. Conditions have been established for entry, exit, and stay of under-age persons with a foreign passport and children of parents who are born Hondurans. 12. The General Directorate has the authority to celebrate agreements with national and international organizations or institutions to simplify and facilitate migration. 13. The General Directorate has the authority to establish homologation agreements for migration procedures, with the aim of strengthening regional integration efforts as appropriate. ADVANTAGES

14. Authorize the characteristics of migration documents and travel documents through an agreement. 15.Entry, exit, stay, and return requirements are updated. 16.Collaborate with other public and private sector entities to serve victims of the crime of smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons. 17. Provide special assistance to returned migrants to facilitate social reintegration. ADVANTAGES

18. In general, the number of duties of the General Directorate has been expanded discretionally, regarding migration control, regional integration of migration, and immigration services which are not duties – established by law – of other public authorities or institutions. ADVANTAGES

19. In addition, the Law Reform is oriented toward strengthening the current organizational and operational structure of the General Directorate, with the purpose of providing suitable mechanisms which guarantee effectiveness and transparency in service provision and migration management as a basic task, thus supporting a better National Security System regarding this matter. NEW STRUCTURE OF THE GENERAL DIRECTORATE OF MIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION (DGME)

NEW STRUCTURE OF DGME 20. The General Directorate has been organized and structured in a new way, thus becoming a decentralized organ of the Executive. Relations with the Executive will be channeled through the Secretariat of State in the Offices of the Secretariat of the Interior and of Justice. The General Directorate has a patrimony of its own as well as technical, administrative, financial, and budgetary independence.

NEW STRUCTURE OF DGME 21. The General Directorate of Migration and Immigration will have an internal structure of its own which will be established in the bylaws. It will have a special system of nomenclature, classification, and salaries as well as regulation related to staff, disciplinary measures, recruitment of administrative staff, and migration career to ensure that functions are carried out.

NEW STRUCTURE OF DGME A special fund has been established as the DGME budget. The purpose of the fund is to provide timely availability of financial resources to pay for and subcontract services which are exclusively oriented toward capacity building, in order to allow carrying out the following tasks: Issuing travel documents, assisting returned migrants, migration control and security at a national, regional, and international level, and assisting victims of the crime of smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons, in collaboration with other public and private sector entities.

NEW STRUCTURE OF DGME 90% of the fund will consist of financial resources collected by the General Directorate of Migration and Immigration as payment of fees, rights, fines, and other payments for service provision and issuance of migration documents.

NEW BILLS In addition to the Law Reform effort, the bill on Protection of Migrant Hondurans and their Families is being discussed with several public and private organizations and NGOs. The bill has already been endorsed by all sectors of the Honduran society. The National Migration Council (Consejo Nacional de la Emigración - CNE) has been created to this effect. The Council has proposed an organizational structure to implement the law once it has been approved.

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