Since the beginning of 2021, the number of migrant children reported in Mexico has skyrocketed from 380 to over 3,500.
Children make up at least 30% of the migrant population in many Mexican shelters. One of the greatest proportions ever reported in Mexico is that half of them had gone without their parents. For these migrant children, Mexico has become a nation of origin, transit, and return, with the majority of them coming from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico.
Due to the alarming rise in illegal child trafficking, Mexican authorities have announced the establishment of 17 camps along the country’s southern border to accept migrant children, many of whom travel alone.
The establishment of the camps is part of a plan agreed upon by the government and regional authorities to strengthen border surveillance and response to migrant children, the number of whom reached 18,800 in March, according to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador during his speech.
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the increased number of unaccompanied migrant children, as well as the entrance of entire families with children, has placed a tremendous pressure on Mexico’s already overburdened aid facilities. As FSF-IHCE we aim to to expand these hosting facilities to accommodate the unique needs of families with children and unaccompanied minors.
According to López Obrador, the camps for migrant children will be supervised by officials from the National System for Integral Development of Families (DIF), who would collaborate with local authorities.
In this context, Francisco Garduo, the head of the National Institute of Migration (INM), said that the INM will hand over some facilities to the DIF in order to create the camps.
The new migrant minor care plan corresponds with recent US demands to Mexico and the nations of the so-called Northern Triangle – Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador – to assist limit the number of children arriving illegally into the Territory of the United States.
The rising number of minors, many of whom are alone, arriving at the US southern border has become a concern for Joe Biden’s administration, which has chosen Vice President Kamala Harris to deal with the enormous flow of migrants.
The Biden administration continues to return most migrants to Mexico quickly, but it has stated that it would not do so with unaccompanied children who are being transferred to shelters before being reunited with their families.
Smugglers are encouraging Central American families to migrate with small children in the hopes of improving their chances of being permitted to stay in the United States as their cases continue.
FSF-IHCE is actively seeking funds and partnerships to help provide quality education, infrastructure, water and sanitation facilities, life skills and vocational training, alternative care, and violence prevention programs to Mexico’s most vulnerable migrant population.