At night, in Mirador National Park in northeastern Guatemala, Raúl Gómez falls asleep surrounded by the cries of nocturnal animals running through the jungles of the Maya Biosphere Reserve. – one of the most pristine in Guatemala – home to jaguars, harpy eagles and the expanding ruins of Mayan cities that were once powerful, now wrapped in vines and vegetation.
He is a long way from Gomez’s life as a bricklayer two years ago, when he had to flee his village in Honduras after the local maras (gang members) gave him an ultimatum: sign up or die.
Gómez, whose genuine call does not serve to protect his identity, is one of thousands of migrants who have arrived in Guatemala in recent years, a country of key transit in the adventure to the United States, where they hope to locate protection and new Some, like Gomez, are fleeing violence or political persecution, while others are being driven north because of climate change or in search of greater economic opportunities.
For decades, the United States had put in position a formula for filtering out asylum applications and those that met the legal criteria of the 1951 Refugee Convention, but the harsh immigration restrictions imposed through the Trump administration have made the procedure almost impossible, and a new rule issued at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic has necessarily closed U. S. borders to any kind of migration.
For many migrants, returning home is not an option, and it is easy to fall through the cracks of volatile asylum systems in Guatemala and Mexico if they stay there.
‘Green jobs’ for refugees
Marco Cerezo is the director of FUNDAECO, a Guatemalan NGO that carries out conservation projects and national parks throughout the country. The organization is also helping forest communities download the legal name from their lands. For some of these communities, they have established a network of clinics that provide sexual and reproductive conditioning facilities to local women.
Four years ago, Cerezo began to realize that large numbers of migrants crossed the spaces where the clinics were located, and as they increased, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) contacted FUNDAECO to ask if they could simply partner. themselves with the use of clinics to supply migrant women heading north.
“By natural coincidence, our paint sites are in the direction of migration for refugees from Nicaragua and Honduras,” Cerezo said. “But also, and we are well informed about it, refugees traveling from Cuba, Africa and Brazil to Colombia and Guatemala. “
FUNDAECO agreed to paint with UNHCR, and eventually provided a program to locate jobs for some refugees in Guatemala.
“The concept is to offer them the ability to resettle and provide a solution to others who have fled conflict or human rights violations and are unable to return home,” Alexis Masciarelli told Mongabay. Array, a UNHCR communications officer based in Guatemala. a meeting.
Over time, the concept became a program called Green Jobs (“Green Jobs”), where FUNDAECO and the local organization agreed to place applicants in work related to conservation and environmental management.
“When you communicate with other people who have gone looking for a job, not only on a daily basis, but at something more regular, you regain their dignity and ability to contribute to a new network and feel more settled, that’s what other people want most,” Masciarelli said.
Gómez, one of the first waves of refugees to be referred through UNHCR to FUNDAECO for one of the jobs. Honduras has struggled with endemic gang violence in recent years, and after receiving death threats, Gomez fled to Guatemala, crossing the border with less than $5. In his name, a bus engine on a city border took pity on him and took him to Petén, the Guatemalan state where the Maya Biosphere Reserve is located.
With the help of UNHCR, Gómez hired him to paint as a ranger in Mirador National Park. To prepare, FUNDAECO provided him with an extensive educational program where he learned to identify local species, install photo traps and move quietly through the jungle. near Mirador have lost large areas of forest due to grazing and burning agriculture and cattle breeding in recent years.
Gomez now spends up to two weeks in a row in the park, running with a team of more experienced rangers to track down illegal loggers and poachers.
“At first it was difficult, I didn’t adapt to the environment,” he told Mongabay in an interview. “But over time, I’ve become more comfortable. You attach yourself to the post and sometimes when you’re in the landscape, you don’t even need to leave. »
The Lucky Few
Gómez is now one of 55 refugees who have been hired through FUNDAECO through their collaboration with UNHCR. Some paintings in remote parks, such as Gómez, and others in forested ravines that pass through Guatemala City and are called lungs or lungs of the city.
“Most of them are park rangers, ” said Cherry. ” And some other people paint about maintaining areas, [repairing] trails and things like that. Other paintings on ecotourism. “
Sensitive to perceptions of some Guatemalans who might be irritated to see the migrants hired instead, FUNDAECO hires a refugee area that puts them in a job.
“They paint in combination and the concept is that they become friends, know their families and among them,” Cerezo said.
Cerezo said he expects the nascent program to rent at least a hundred refugees in total, however, this figure represents only a small fraction of migrants passing through Guatemala or have been forced to stay there due to border restrictions, according to Masciarelli, officially, just over a thousand asylum seekers hope to settle in Guatemala.
“Although the number has increased in the last 4 or five years, it is still limited at this time,” he said. “We have about 1,200 refugees and asylum seekers in the country. “
Unofficially, however, the number of refugees in Guatemala is likely to be much higher, and many of them are not on the official lists. inability to identify and treat everyone who wants to seek coverage in the country.
For the lucky few who have discovered their place in the Green Jobs program, an unforeseen door has been opened to Guatemala’s herb world: while they were once forced to cross dense jungles on arduous out-of-danger journeys, they are now the forest of intruders.
“I feel very grateful because I never thought I’d have such a wonderful opportunity,” Gomez said. “Taking care of the Mayan biosphere is something extraordinary. When you come from another country, you don’t think you can have a chance. “so, and when I did, I ran out of words. “
Cerezo said he hopes the program will grow and serve as a style of what the reconstruction of Guatemala’s economy looks like after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We want a green recovery with green jobs,” he said. Refugees and asylum seekers can be in this area. “
Header image: Pyramid of La Danta in El Mirador National Park, photographed from a helicopter. Photo via Dennis Jarvis / Flickr.
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