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UNHCR/ViolenceBack
[Published: Wednesday May 23 2018]

 UNHCR concerned over Central America violence


GENEVA 23 May (ANA) - The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has said it is alarmed by the spike in the number of people fleeing violence in Central America, calling the international community to "grant [those fleeing] protection" and help the countries address the "root causes". 

"More than 294,000 asylum seekers and refugees from the North of Central America were registered globally as of the end of 2017, an increase of 58 percent from a year earlier," UNHCR said in a statement on Tuesday.

"This is 16 times more people than at the end of 2011," it added. 

"The vast majority of those fleeing El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are seeking refugee protection to the north in Belize, Mexico, and the United States, or to the south in Costa Rica and Panama." 

The applicants are primarily women or children unaccompanied by or who have become separated from their families.

UNHCR added that despite the risks they face when crossing borders, such as violence, sexual violence or exploitation, these people travel "out of desperation, facing high levels of homicide in their countries of origin".

Although Mexico continues to be a country of transit to the United States, more asylum seekers have decided to settle there, UNHCR said. 

"Last year we saw the new phenomenon that they are getting closer to Costa Rica, Panama and Belize, and we can no longer consider Mexico as a country of transit, but as a country of destination as well," Francesca Fontanini, UNHCR's spokeswoman for America, said on Tuesday. 

According to Fontanini the complexity of the problems facing Central American countries meant there is no quick solution.

"For now they can't and they don't want to go to back to their countries," Fontanini said.(ANA)
FA/ANA/23 May 2018-------
  
 

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