Humanitarian Action for Children 2025 - Children on the move and those affected by armed violence - Latin America

HIGHLIGHTS

• Children and families in Latin America and the Caribbean face numerous overlapping crises: migration, insecurity, forced displacement, inequality, sociopolitical instability and climate-related disasters. Migrant and refugee children are particularly vulnerable and face heightened risks of family separation, violence and life-threatening conditions during their journeys. The rise in armed violence also jeopardizes their safety by exposing them to exploitation and recruitment by illegal groups and to significant socioemotional impacts, with adolescent girls particularly at risk of gender-based violence. Women, girls and persons with disabilities continue to be disproportionately affected by adverse conditions in the region. In 2025, an estimated 14.3 million individuals,1 including 4.7 million children,2 will require humanitarian assistance due to mixed migration and armed conflict.
• UNICEF's strategy for 2025 will prioritize the urgent protection of migrant children by ensuring access to mental health and psychosocial support, medical and nutritional care, education and safe WASH services. To address the impact of armed violence, UNICEF will enhance its response for children through critical humanitarian assistance and interventions to prevent gender-based violence.
• UNICEF seeks $249.5 million3 for 2025 to deliver essential services4 and strengthen local systems to meet children’s needs.

HUMANITARIAN SITUATION AND NEEDS

Children in Latin American and the Caribbean continue to be affected by numerous crises: mixed migration, armed violence, public health emergencies, deteriorating socioeconomic conditions and climate-related disasters. Systemic gender inequalities heighten the risks for women and girls, with more than one in six girls experiencing rape or sexual assault in childhood.14 These crises, coupled with constrained national emergency response capacities, have traumatic effects on vulnerable children and families. An estimated 14.3 million people, including 4.7 million children, will require humanitarian assistance in 2025 due to mixed migration movements and armed violence across the region.

Migration in the region has evolved into a true child crisis. Children account for 25 per cent of the migrant population,15 including those who are repatriated or deported back to their countries of origin. In 2024, migration, driven by violence, climate change and socioeconomic inequalities has surged across the region. The number of refugees and migrants from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela alone had surpassed 6 million16 by mid-2024. Some countries along typical migration routes had recorded an increase of more than 50 per cent in the number of irregular migrant entries.

Meanwhile, between January and August 2024 more than 50,000 children crossed the Darién Gap18 during their migration journeys. Of these children, around 3,800 were unaccompanied or separated children,19 a significant increase compared with 2023.20 Since 2020, the percentage of unaccompanied and separated children crossing the Darién Gap has increased tenfold.21 Moreover, stricter border and visa regulations are leading children and families to use irregular migration pathways, increasing their exposure to violence, abuse and trafficking. This trend is expected to continue in 2025, alongside rising xenophobia and stigmatization in host communities.

Armed violence doesn't just act as a catalyst for migration, it also severely disrupts children’s lives in other ways. The region is home to a quarter of global homicides and homicide is the leading cause of death among adolescent boys aged 10–19 in the region.22 Femicide also remains high, with more than 3,000 women and girls murdered in 2023 in 27 countries in the region.23 Several Mexican cities have the highest global homicide rates. Meanwhile, homicide rates continue to rise in Guatemala; and recent surges in violence have been reported in Costa Rica and Ecuador. 24 Violence deprives children of their rights and prevents their access to essential services. It also heightens the risk of children's forced recruitment into armed groups, where they can experience exploitation, family separation and severe psychological impacts.