Violence forces people to flee

Widespread violence has created a protection crisis in Honduras. Forced displacement, threats, kidnappings, sexual violence and homicides are common.

"Many want to flee, but they don’t know where to go. We don’t know what to do. We are worried about our children," says a mother living Bordo Sanata Ana.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) estimates that violence has displaced more than 200.000 people within Honduras. Families fleeing violence often leave under the cover of night, not allowing them to take many personal belongings. Children, elderly people and mothers flee in an attempt to save their lives.

"The world cannot stand still watching people being killed, or keep silent when criminal gangs are controlling territories through fear. The international community needs to scale up its response to escalating violence caused by organized crime," says Christian Visnes, Country Director for NRC in Honduras.

Honduras' second largest city, San Pedro Sula, has the second highest murder rate in the world, with 111 out of 100,000 inhabitants being killed every year. Around 1000 families are now at risk of forced displacement in a neighbourhood called Bordo Santa Ana.

99 years old Elena fled her home together with her husband. “I don’t want to die in that neighbourhood," she says, now displaced in San Pedro Sula.

"Clashes between gangs happen almost daily. Bullets fly over our houses and a local leader was killed," one of the locals says. Over 198 persons have been displaced over the last few weeks.

The national Ombudsman estimates that over 80 per cent of human rights violations in Honduras remain in impunity. Other estimates suggest that 97 per cent of murders remain unsolved, leaving armed groups and organized gangs with a almost total impunity to continue their grave violations of human rights.

At present, the Honduran government acknowledges the gravity of the situation, but has not been able to prevent displacement or respond systematically to the immediate needs of displaced families.

A legal framework that specifically promote the protection of - and assistance to - displaced people is urgent. The violence and the government's inability to protect the population makes many choose to flee the country. Most flee north to Mexico and the United States, or they go to Costa Rica and Panama.

Many of those fleeing are children and young people -often unaccompanied. The US government recorded more than 10,468 cases of unaccompanied Honduran children crossing the border between October 2015 and September of 2016 – nearly double the 2015 figure and more than six times the number in 2013.

"We must increase our humanitarian support for all the civilians affected by violence. This needs to happen now," underlines Visnes.