Migrant childhoods face multiple violations of their human rights by transiting in Mexico, where the number of minors in mobility has increased more than 500% in the last six years, according to a report of civil organizations Plan International and Save the Children, presented on Monday.
Amid the hardening of migratory policies by the United States government, NGOs presented the results of the investigation ‘unaccompanied childhood: risks and violence on the migratory route for Mexico’, based on 155 interviews with minors in mobility situations and people responsible for their care in three border cities in northern Mexico, Ciudad Juárez, Reynosa and Tijuana.
Carmen Elena Alemán, Regional Director of Plan International, said that the investigation is part of a “very critical” context for Latin America and the Caribbean, where one in four migrants are lower, according to UNICEF data.
These figures are also reflected in Mexico, said German, where the number of minors in transit increased 514% in the last six years, from almost 17,600 in 2018 to 108,400 in 2024, according to government data.
“Thousands of adolescent children and children undertake every year a journey through Mexico, alone or accompanied, in search of protection (…), family reunification or because they look for better living conditions,” said German.
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Unaccompanied minors, in total lack of protection
The investigation also revealed that, although many minors undertook the trip accompanied by relatives or loved ones, they frequently ended up separating, which increases their vulnerability to violence and criminal networks.
In Ciudad Juárez, for example, almost two out of three children surveyed, 63%, they left home with a relative or guardian, but only one third arrived in Mexico accompanied.
According to official figures, the number of unaccompanied minors has also multiplied in recent years, from 69,500 in 2019 to more than 137,000 in 2023.
Ángeles Camacho, National Coordinator of Humanitarian Response in Save The Children in Mexico, said that unaccompanied minors show “one of the most serious expressions of childhood lack of protection” because “being a girl, boy, adolescent and being alone in mobility in a country like ours is synonymous with total vulnerability,” he warned.
He said that, when they migrate, girls, boys and adolescents are exposed to forced recruitment, trafficking networks, labor or sexual exploitation, prolonged arrests and do not access health or education.
Invisible routes, silent risks
Camacho also warned that while the “visible” migratory flows have decreased, “child mobility does not stop” and, in addition, the way it occurs has changed.
“More and more invisible routes, more silent risks, more emotional conditions than anyone attends,” he warned.
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The report also shows that the militarization of the border and the hardening of Mexican migratory controls, rather than stopping migration, precarious and causes people to resort to irregular routes through insecure areas, increasing the risks.
Exclusion of rights
In addition, the investigation warns of insecurity in the host spaces, located in “very high risk areas”, which exposes minors to dangers, limits their mobility and makes access to basic services difficult.
The researcher Eugenia Morales highlighted the “alarming rupture of the guarantee of fundamental rights for children” showed by the report.
“Especially in education and mental health, which are key areas for their development and severely compromised, more than a time here, with long waiting on the border,” he said.
He said that more than 70% of girls, girls from teenagers attending school in their places of origin are “completely excluded from the educational system after migrating,” Morales said.
Given this panorama, Verónica Zambrano, from Plan International, made a call “clear and urgent” to “not allow the rights of childhood and adolescence to be detained at the border”
With EFE information
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