The Honduran National Police detained this Wednesday in a sector in the east of the country fifteen citizens from Venezuela and five from Kazakhstan who were being transported in a van by an alleged coyote or Honduran human trafficker, the Efe news agency reported.
“At a fixed checkpoint a stop signal was made to the individual, at which he parked and upon verification it was observed that he was transporting passengers in the vehicle, for which they were asked for their documents, verifying that the detainee was illegally transporting fifteen citizens of Venezuela and five from Kazakhstan,” said the Policeman it’s a statement.
migrants Venezuelans and from Kazakhstan were detained during an operation in the municipality of Trojes, department of El Paraíso, bordering with Nicaraguasaid the institution.
He added that the foreigners and the alleged coyote were detained during an operation in which agents from the National Directorate for Prevention and Community Security, the National Directorate of Border Police Services and the Honduran Police Directorate of Investigations participated.
crime of human trafficking
The captured Honduran, 42 years old and whose identity was not revealed, is supposed to be “responsible for the illicit crime of human trafficking,” said the same source.
The man allegedly transferred the migrants from Trojes to the border with Guatemala to continue en route to the United States, he added.
The detained Honduran, a merchant by profession, had a vehicle and a mobile phone seized and will be presented before the judicial entity to continue his legal process, according to the police report.
Migrants remain detained
The migrants remain held in an office of the National Migration Institute, where the authorities will coordinate their return to their country or authorize them to continue their journey.
The Honduran authorities have intensified operational actions in border areas to “combat and counter human trafficking and related crimes.”
A total of 74,542 irregular migrants have been detained in Honduras so far in 2022 for entering illegally, some of them with the intention of reaching the United States, according to figures from the National Migration Institute (INM).
Honduras published on August 3 in the Official Gazette the legislative decree that exonerates from the payment of an administrative fine, for more than 220 dollars, to migrants in a situation of mobility who enter the country irregularly.
The amnesty consists “in the suspension of the administrative sanction for entry through unauthorized border points and which is contemplated in Article 104, number 1 of the Immigration and Aliens Law,” according to the INM.
