A record number of unaccompanied migrant minors have traveled through Latin America and the Caribbean this year, according to estimates from UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency.
Some 3,800 children migrated alone through the Darien Gap, a treacherous jungle route between Colombia and Panama in just the first 10 months of 2024. That’s compared with 3,300 in all of 2023. Children represent a quarter of migrants in the region, according to UNICEF.
Of the migrants that traveled to the United States last year, the Office of Refugee Resettlement handled over 118,000 unaccompanied minors.
U.N. officials are concerned about the increase in the number of children traveling alone through the region, said Anne-Claire Dufay, UNICEF’s deputy regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Travelling alone, they experience a higher proportion of violence, including sexual violence, abuse and exploitation, with detrimental effects on their physical and mental health and well-being,” Dufay said.
Armed violence facing populations in the region not only triggers migration, according to UNICEF, but deprives children of their rights and access to vital services like education and healthcare.
The U.N. estimates that 16 million children in the region will need education, health, and protective services in 2025 as a result of internal conflict, violence and climate-related disasters — which could cost $819.8 million.
Providing support to Haitian children alone would cost $271.2 million, UNICEF estimates. Ongoing political turmoil and gang violence in Haiti has displaced tens of thousands from the nation’s capital in recent months, and armed gangs have increasingly recruited children, who according to UNICEF now make up half those gangs’ members.
UNICEF is appealing to world governments and charitable organizations for a total of over $9 billion next year to support the needs of 109 million children impacted by wars and various crises around the world.
