children on the run


While the world’s attention is focused on the plight of refugees fleeing Syria, a silent emergency is unfolding in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, known as the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA). UNHCR has documented an alarming seven-fold increase in the number of refugees and asylum-seekers, many of


children, from NTCA countries in the last four years: from 20,900 people in 2012 to 146,000 in 2016. Most are seeking safety in Mexico, the U.S. and neighbouring countries.


Although these numbers may seem small in comparison with the refugee crises in parts of the Middle East and Africa, their rapid growth is quickly outstripping


available leaving many vulnerable


resources, children,


women and men without physical and legal protection.


Why are they running?


In recent years, El Salvador, Guatemala


and Honduras have


experienced a dramatic escalation in violence by organized criminal groups, locally called maras. Murders, beatings, sexual assaults, as well as forced recruitment into the gangs, are everyday occurrences and are often witnessed by children who are emotionally scarred for life. Current homicide rates are among the highest ever recorded in the region and are as deadly


as many contemporary


WE ARE SEEING MANY MORE FAMILIES AND THEY ALL REPORT FLEEING EXTREME VIOLENCE. THEY’RE EXPLOITED ON ALL SIDES— BY GANGS, BY POLICE, BY AUTHORITIES ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER.


– Sister Nelly of the Daughters of Charity at the Jtatic Samuel Ruiz Shelter in southern Mexico


armed conflicts. Several cities within the NTCA, including San Salvador, Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, are among the top 10 most dangerous cities in the world.


them


A 2014 study revealed that as many as 48.6 per cent of the children in Mexico displaced from NTCA countries cited criminal and gender- related violence as the leading cause for their displacement.


UNHCR’s 2015 Children on the Run report found that 58 per cent of


unaccompanied and separated


children arriving in the U.S. from the NTCA needed international protection, and could not return home. Their only chance is to leave everything behind, and hope that somehow, they will find safety. In Central America, children are being robbed of their childhoods.


18 / UNHCR


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