2023-09-07 21:01:57
Latin America and the Caribbean are experiencing “one of the largest and most complex crises of migration children in the world”, with a world record of children crossing through its main transit points, warned this Thursday Unicef.
25% of migrants in the region are minors, often unaccompanied, compared to 15% worldwide, according to a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which points to poverty, violence and environmental degradation as causes of mass exodus.
Children under 11 years of age make up 91% of the children and adolescents who cross through the three hotspots of migratory transit: the dangerous and inhospitable Darien jungle between Colombia and Panama, northern Central America, and Mexico, according to the report. The changing face of migrant children in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In the first six months of 2023, more than 40,000 minors and adolescents crossed the Darién jungle. For its part, the United States Customs and Border Protection Service registered 83,000 minors in the first half of this year, compared to 149,000 in 2021 and 155,000 in 2022.
The situation of migrant children in the region “is unparalleled for its complexity and magnitude,” warned UNICEF regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Gary Conille, in a press conference.
It is a “continental problem” that requires a “unified response,” he warned.
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