Children and adolescents continue to cross borders in the American continent, with or without their parents, to find a possible future of life. They are fleeing violence, political persecution and extreme poverty. A quarter of the record of almost 128,000 asylum applications in Mexico this year correspond to minors. International organizations warn that Latin America and the Caribbean is home to one of the largest and most complex migrant childhood crises in the world.
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Maibelin Merchan, a mother from a Venezuelan family, arrived in Tapachula, in southern Mexico and on the border with Guatemala, along with her young son. When they crossed the Darién jungle, on the border between Panama and Colombia, They met many children on the way. A reality that is reflected in the high number of asylum applications in Mexicoas well as the growing number of unaccompanied minors who decide to leave their communities and migrate.
The president of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar), Andrés Ramírez, said that At the end of November, 136,934 asylum seekers had been registered as refugees. “A new mark, which exceeds the total number of registered applicants throughout 2021 by 5.61%, the year in which the highest number had been registered,” he warned.
Pierre-Marc René, public information associate at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, reported that Of this number, 25% correspond to minorswhich represents a significant segment of those seeking asylum in Mexico.
Haiti, with 43,459 applicants, is the country with the most citizens who have requested asylum. Then there is Honduras with 40,142 and Cuba with 17,686. According to Comar figures, An interannual increase of nearly 30% is reflected in requests received in the first 10 months of the year.
More than 3,000 unaccompanied minors arrived in Mexico
One of the alerts that most worries the authorities is the increase in the number of unaccompanied minors. Pierre-Marc René mentioned that they have registered more than 3,000 unaccompanied children who have requested asylum; That is, they arrived on their own to the border between Mexico and Guatemala.
The number of children crossing the dangerous Darien jungle has also increased. In 2021, some 133,000 crossings were registered, of which, more than 29,000 were children and adolescents. In 2022, there were a total of 250,000 people, of which about 40,000 were minors, among them, more than 600 were unaccompanied. For the first half of 2023, More than 40,000 children and adolescents have already crossed the Darién jungle, making it the year with the highest number of minors.
Unicef has pointed out that the factors that motivate the decision of a child, adolescent or family to move are very diverse. “Some are fleeing violence, political persecution and extreme poverty. Others leave in search of greater opportunities and a better future for their sons and daughters or with the desire to reunite with relatives abroad,” he says. an organization report.
Throughout the world, the document notes, Minors represent 15% of the migrant population, but in Latin America and the Caribbean they represent 25% of people on the move in the region. In 2021, children and adolescents represented around 26% of people forcibly displaced internationally on the American continent.
Maibelin Merchan sadly remembers the arrival of completely sick children. “There are many who come with malnutrition and hunger,” he said. Amanda Fondo, another Venezuelan mother, recognized that those who suffer the most are the little ones.
“My nephew, my sister’s oldest, tells her: ‘Mom, let’s stop because my heart hurts.’ Why is her heart fluttering? Because her age is not appropriate for such long journeys, we suffer from everything, since we made the decision to migrate. We are exposed to facing any situation,” she explained.
For Tapachula, at least 40,000 migrant children and adolescents have crossed this border crossing so far this year, according to the director of the ‘Todo por Nuestros’ shelter, Lorenza Obdulia Reyes, who indicated that the majority come from Honduras, Salvador, Guatemala, Cuba and Venezuela.
With EFE.
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