Attachments
HIGHLIGHTS
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More families with children are migrating across Mexico and Central America, fleeing poverty and violence, a phenomenon that is pushing the number of children and families on the move transiting the subregion to record highs. Climate-related events (e.g., the El Niño weather pattern) and other crises threaten areas already affected by food insecurity and facing effects of past disasters. UNICEF estimates that 4.1 million children will need humanitarian assistance in Mexico and Central America in 2024.
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UNICEF will assist children on the move, in transit or returned, and those in host communities whose services are overstretched; and will sustain basic services and protection in communities affected by violence, displacement, food insecurity, malnutrition and climate-related disasters.
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UNICEF requires $153 million to support 2.1 million people (including nearly 710,000 children). Protection services for women and children on the move and restoration and improvement of critical health, education and WASH infrastructure and services in other affected communities are priorities in 2024.
HUMANITARIAN SITUATION AND NEEDS
Migration flows across Mexico and Central America are multidirectional and interconnected, with many countries acting simultaneously as places of origin, transit and destination. The number of migrants crossing through the Darien border to Panama hit record-high figures in 2023, with close to 409,000 entries between January and September 2023, nearly three times the number recorded during the same period in 2022. One in every five migrants walking through the Darien jungle is a child, making children the fastest growing group among people on the move through this border. More families with children are now migrating, attempting to reach the United States. A 38 per cent increase compared with 2022 has been recorded in the number of encounters with individuals in family groups at the southwestern border of the United States. Migrants, especially children and women, face multiple risks throughout their journey. In surveys conducted at borders in Panama, one third of interviewed migrants reported experiencing theft, scams or fraud in their journey; at least 222 people on the move have been reported missing across the subregion in 2023 (18 children, 16 women) and reports of sexual violence are frequent.
Children on the move require life-saving assistance and protection and access to education, health, nutrition and social protection systems. The humanitarian needs of vulnerable migrant children and families put pressure on existing services that are often already scarce or even nonexistent in remote areas of transit, and overwhelm local authorities and communities in transit and destination countries, especially during peaks of mixed mass movements. Cross-border migration and internal displacement in Mexico and Central America are triggered by a combination of factors: crime and violence (including high femicide rates), lack of opportunities, structural inequity and poverty and consequent poor access to services, climate-related disasters, food insecurity and malnutrition, and other causes.
Adding to the migration crisis and the long-standing vulnerabilities in Central America, approximately 1.7 million people are at increased risk due to El Niño-induced drought conditions. These people are exposed to severe disruptions in access to water, food production and livelihoods, and increased levels of food insecurity and malnutrition for children. All this is occurring in countries where more than 5.6 million people, including 1.9 million children, are already facing significant levels of acute food insecurity (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Phase 3 or above) and urgently require assistance.