Vice-Canciller Garcia,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to be here as part of my first visit to San Pedro Sula, enjoying the opportunity to see more of your beautiful country. I am pleased to participate in the inauguration of this center. This center is crucial to managing migration in a humane and dignified way.
As you know, the Returned Migrant Attention Center (CAMR) in La Lima, Cortes opened in 2008. This CAMR was destroyed by Hurricanes Eta and Iota in 2020, except for the walls that surround us. The line on the wall shows just how high the water rose during those hurricanes. Everything inside was lost. Conditions were not suitable to receive with dignity and security those migrants returned to Honduras from Mexico and the United States.
Thanks to financing from the Unites States Agency for International Development, and managed by the International Organization for Migration, today we inaugurate the new CAMR La Lima. It is a completely new center, with modern systems and spaces to receive migrants in a safe and dignified way. This modernized center is a model for the seven similar centers in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
I would like to thank all those collaborators who made this CAMR possible. They include:
The Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo Scalabrinians of the Catholic Church.
The National Institute of Migration.
The doctors and medical students of the Ministry of Health and the Catholic University.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The Norwegian Refugee Council.
And non-governmental organizations like the Mennonite Social Action Commission and the Red Cross.
To all those who collaborate here, my sincere gratitude. Your work is very important. You reunite families and save lives.
We are committed to helping Honduras continue to build a society that protects, educates and employs all Hondurans.
Canciller Reina, Vice-canciller Antonio García, Director General Wilson Paz and the Administration of President Castro deserve special thanks for their reintegration initiative.
Thank you very much.
