Migrant caravans are characterized as a free mode of travel and are composed of mixed migratory flows, whose objective is to reach the United States. Since December 2020, a call circulated on social networks for a migrant caravan that would leave on January 15, 2021 from San Pedro Sula, Honduras and information was also obtained about multiple groups of migrants that would meet in Chiquimula, Guatemala to leave as a single caravan to Tecún Umán.

As part of the humanitarian response as of January 14, 2021, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) implemented the Human Mobility Tracking Matrix (DTM) to monitor the flow of migrants undertaking their migratory route in the context of caravans.

From January 14-19, 2021 three teams conducted monitoring and follow-up on the following routes:

1. San Pedro Sula to El Florido land border route
2. Puerto Barrios route to El Florido land border
3. Esquipulas to Terrestrial Border Agua Caliente

Some limitations during the monitoring were the omission in the estimation of some people who did not travel from San Pedro Sula and joined the caravan during the journey, as well as the people who on the way desisted from continuing on the route.