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Due to job losses, many Hondurans are either homeless or surviving in humanitarian shelters.
At least 235 Honduran citizens with few economic resources are trapped in Spain and living in a very critical situation.
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"Most came to work in Spain but lost their jobs because their immigration status was irregular," Honduran Pablo Jose Perez said on behalf of the group.
"They have been without pay for more than two months and they no longer have money. They need to return to Honduras because they have their families there... but the Honduran government does not want to support them," he added.
Perez, who was on a work trip in Spain when the pandemic was declared, made a WhatsApp group with those affected to maintain contact with his compatriots.
“Many of them are in shelters and assisted by organizations such as Caritas or the Red Cross. Others are homeless and others went to the embassy but it is closed due to the health situation,” the spokesman for the Honduran migrants explained.
Hondureños deambulan en calles de España y claman repatriación https://t.co/tlVsy4cbIs
— El Mundo (@elmundohn) May 11, 2020
The meme reads, "Hondurans roam the streets of Spain and claim repatriation. Julia Garcia, a Honduran woman in Toledo, Spain, stated that there is a group of over 200 compatriots who claim to be repatriated."
"Authorities have not even shown signs of getting involved... all they have done is manage an expensive flight, costing between 1,000 and 1,300 euros, which people cannot afford."
In response to his country's attitude, Perez has contacted social organizations to obtain some form of humanitarian support. Among them, for example, the Fundación 15 de Septiembre, which is made up of Hondurans living in South Florida, has supported them by influencing the media.
"What we want is a humanitarian repatriation flight in which the government assumes the cost or a large part of it," Pérez said, stressing that those affected "no longer have time."
Currently, some 1.5 million Hondurans live abroad. In 2019, their remittances reached US$5.4 billion, that is, 20 percent of the Honduran Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
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