Dokument #1081716
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
The information that follows was provided
during a 30 October 1997 telephone interview with the Research
Centre for the Promotion of Human Rights (CIPRODEH), a
non-government office that serves as the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) liaison in Honduras and deals
with refugee cases and related matters in that country.
The Honduran government is reviewing a bill
to establish a refugee determination system, but currently has no
legally established system for handling claims for asylum or
refugee status. Requests for asylum or refugee status have been
dealt with on an ad hoc basis. Despite the lack of legal
provisions, in practice the immigration authorities and the UNHCR
liaison (CIPRODEH) receive claims for asylum or refugee status,
review the cases, and immigration authorities grant those accepted
as refugees a temporary or provisional migratory status indicated
by a provisional residence card (carnet de residencia
provisional). Refugees thus become temporary residents of
Honduras, albeit under one of two categories: refugees under UNHCR
mandate (bajo mandato del ACNUR), in which only the UNHCR
recognizes the person as a refugee and notifies the Honduran
government of this, or refugees under the protection of the
Honduran state with participation of the UNHCR. In either case, the
person is a legal resident of Honduras and generally enjoys the
same rights as other legal residents of Honduras. Honduras adhered
to the Geneva Convention with reservations which entitled the state
to limit refugees' rights to employment, movement and services, to
prevent their possible detrimental impact on Hondurans' employment,
security and well-being; however, in practice these limitations are
not applied.
Honduras has had no requests for asylum or
refugee status by individuals from the Middle East or Africa in
this decade. However, CIPRODEH knows that during these years
refugees or migrants from the Middle East and Africa have passed
through Honduras on their way to other countries, without
approaching the UNHCR liaison or Honduran immigration authorities'
offices to request asylum or refugee status.
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is
not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any
particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
Reference
Centro de Investigacion para la
Promocion de los Derechos Humanos (CIPRODEH), Tegucigalpa. 30
October 1997. Telephone interview with representative.