UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Thousands of children trying to escape gang violence and poverty in Central America have made their way to the United States this year – and there is no sign that the flow is letting up, the U.N. children’s agency said in a report released late Monday.
In the first six months of 2016, UNICEF said almost 26,000 unaccompanied children were apprehended at the U.S. border along with 29,700 people traveling as a family, mostly mothers and young children.
Most are from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, three countries with some of the world’s highest murder and poverty rates, UNICEF said.
“It is heart-rending to think of these children – most of them teenagers, but some even younger – making the grueling and extremely dangerous journey in search of safety and a better life,” UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director Justin Forsyth said in the report. “The flow of young refugees and migrants highlights the critical importance of tackling the violence and socio-economic conditions in their countries of origin.”
The United States pressured Mexico to step up detentions of migrants after the number of unaccompanied children arriving at the U.S. border soared to more than 44,500 in the first six months of 2014. Last year, Mexican authorities apprehended nearly 36,000 children, more than half of whom were unaccompanied. By comparison, Mexico detained just 9,600 children in 2013.