A record number of children from Latin America and the Caribbean are leaving their homes in search of a better life, risking disease, injury and abuse, a United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) report said Wednesday, urging a stronger humanitarian response.
Driven by violence, destitution and severe weather, some 40,000 children crossed the perilous Darien jungle separating Central and South America last year, compared to 29,000 in 2021 and several times more than in previous years.
Six hundred of the children were unaccompanied.
According to UNICEF, children represent a total of 25 percent of migrants in the region, a proportion now as high as in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to around 13 percent worldwide.
And children under 11 make up nearly 91 percent of the displaced children in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Conille urged the international community to commit to a "stronger humanitarian response as well as the expansion of safe and regular migration pathways for children and families to help protect their rights and their futures, no matter where they are from."
Whether they come from South America, Africa or Asia, a large number of these migrants seek to reach Mexico, the United States and Canada.
