This call centre serves Honduran migrants abroad who require information related to the services provided by consulates/embassies and their rights as Honduran migrants.
The call centre Alho Voz, located in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Honduras, is a government initiative run by the sub- Secretariat of Consular and Migration Affairs. The call centre was created to support Honduran migrants living abroad (with regular and irregular status). The call centre provides information related to: (1) the services provided by the consulates of Honduras (e.g., hours of operation, issue of passports, etc.), (2) the rights of migrants abroad, and (3) regularization (e.g., procedures to regularize migrants’ stay in a country). In addition, (4) Honduran migrants may use the service to report arrests or violations of their rights. A video about the call centre is available at the following link.
The call centre Alho Voz started operations in November 2014, with a staff of six people. Today, it has a staff of almost 20 trained employees. It operates from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm (Honduras time). It provides information to Honduran migrants in Mexico, the United States, and more recently Spain. This service has been identified as ‘best practice’ in Central America. The Republic of El Salvador has decided to replicate the model under the name ‘Alo Salvador’.
Alho Voz answered more than 70,000 calls in 2015 (from March).
Design. [P1] Focuses on the informational needs of migrants abroad.
Implementation. [P6] Fosters a partnership between IOM and the government.
- To get people to know about the call centre and its value to Honduran migrants in other countries (through social networks, press releases, and user recommendation).
- To identify the right messages, and the information that users really need and value (through training and database of frequently asked questions).
- It is important to set up clear operating systems with indicators focused on customer service (call time, waiting time, response time, number of received calls, number of calls, recorded conversations to ensure quality).
- It is important to collect information to create a database with migrants’ information for continuous improvement and registration of the calls.
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