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HIGHLIGHTS
Increased and multidirectional migration flows across Mexico and Central America are compounding a humanitarian crisis for children on the move across the subregion. This is a protection crisis. Facing tightened border controls, more families and children travel irregular routes. The journeys can be extremely perilous – such as for those crossing through the Darien Gap – and entail a high risk of abuse, exploitation, and family separation. This threatens children's growth, and their development and well-being.
The situation of children on the move and vulnerable communities in the subregion is exacerbated by the growing exposure to natural hazards and other effects of climate change, resulting in eroded livelihoods and income sources, malnutrition, and food insecurity. UNICEF estimates that 4 million children will need humanitarian assistance in Mexico and Central America in 2023.
UNICEF requires US$142.3 million to provide humanitarian assistance to 2 million people (including 733,000 children) along migratory paths and in vulnerable communities and to support governments and partners in building better shock-responsive systems.
HUMANITARIAN SITUATION AND NEEDS
The increased flow of children on the move continues in Central America and Mexico. The movement has become multidirectional, with more families and children returning (both forced and voluntary) and traveling along irregular routes due to tightened border controls. This puts children at risk of abuse, exploitation, and family separation. Children’s growth, development, and well-being are under threat in what is truly a children’s crisis.
The recovery from the pandemic has been slow and unequal. Poverty remains high, and extreme poverty is expected to worsen in 2023. The situation is compounded by the global disruption of supply chains and inflation triggered by the war in Ukraine and the residual effects of natural hazards. This all challenges access to food, goods, and essential services for the poorest, most shock-prone, migrant families and host communities. In some countries, such as Costa Rica and Mexico, thousands of migrants are settling down each year, adding pressure on the existing services.
Between October 2021 and September 2022, more than 152,000 encounters with unaccompanied children were recorded by authorities at the southwestern border of the United States – a 3 per cent increase from the same period last year. Over the first months of 2023, 1 in 5 migrants walking through the Darien jungle were children, being the fastest growing group among people fleeing their homes under the threat of violence or migrating in search of better opportunities.
Violence is one of the main drivers of migration in the region. For many children and adolescents, staying home means limited future prospects and the risk of gang recruitment and death. Multiple protracted and compounding crises – due to climate hazards, sociopolitical turmoil, inequity, food insecurity, malnutrition, and limited access to quality essential services – continue to fuel migration and internal displacement in the region.
The humanitarian needs of vulnerable children and families add pressure to existing services, often already scarce or non-existing in remote communities or transit hotspots, and overwhelm local authorities in transit and destination countries, especially during peaks or mixed mass movements. Violence, structural inequity, and disasters uproot children and families within their own countries, and internal displacement is often considered a first step toward migration. In 2022, there were over 900,000 internally displaced people in Mexico,
Honduras, and Guatemala alone.