Highlights
In 2025, restricted migration routes and escalating armed violence exposed millions of children in Latin America and the Caribbean to exploitation, recruitment, and family separation. Irregular movements declined, but protection needs surged amid severe funding constraints.
UNICEF humanitarian interventions for Children on the Move and those affected by Armed Violence last year reached over 128,000 children, adolescents, and caregivers with protection services. Around 48,000 children gained access to education, and 250,000 people received safe water, including 132,000 who were provided with critical WASH supplies.
UNICEF received US$67.9 million of its US$249.5 million appeal in 2025. In total, the appeal was 27 per cent funded. Despite the generous contributions received, significant funding gaps persisted, limiting UNICEF ability to effectively respond to the humanitarian needs and make progress against targets in critical support areas.
SITUATION OVERVIEW AND HUMANITARIAN NEEDS
In 2025, migration dynamics across Latin America and the Caribbean shifted significantly, marked by a sharp decline in northbound movements and a notable increase in return and southbound flows. These trends were largely driven by the introduction and reinforcement of restrictive migration and asylum measures in several countries, alongside the suspension of regularization programmes and reduced access to regular migration pathways. 3 In the second quarter of the year, overall irregular movement sharply declined, particularly in Central America. Honduras recorded a sharp drop in irregular entries: 5,400 in 02 compared to 14,300 in 01, marking the lowest quarterly total since 2021. In Panama, entries through the Darien Jungle dropped significantly, leading to the closure of the Lajas Blancas migration reception center, with 02 2025 registering only 96 entries, a dramatic 99.89 per cent reduction compared to 02 2024 (91,055) and a 96.61 per cent drop from 01 2025 (2,831 ).4 In the absence of safe and regular alternatives, many migrants, including children and adolescents, have increasingly relied on irregular and high-risk routes. This has heightened their exposure to violence, exploitation, and abuse by smugglers, traffickers, and non-state armed groups. These dynamics continue to unfold in a context of large-scale displacement. As of mid-2025, the regional inter-agency coordination platform (R4V) estimated that 6.87 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants were living across the region.
At the same time, the region continues to face a severe and escalating crisis of armed violence, with profound impacts on children. Latin America and the Caribbean accounts for approximately one-third of global homicides despite representing only around 8 per cent of the world’s population. Across the region, homicide remains the leading cause of death among adolescents aged 10-19 years and disproportionately affects boys, while the region also records some of the highest homicide rates globally among girls. Armed violence, criminal governance, and the expansion of non-state armed actors continue to drive displacement, recruitment and use of children, family separation, and exposure to gender-based violence.
Country-level trends illustrate the scale and severity of risks facing children. In Ecuador, between January and May 2025, more than 300 children and adolescents were killed, including at least 135 girls, while nearly 900 children were detained for offences often linked to forced recruitment or coercion by criminal groups. 8 Violence has also driven internal displacement affecting approximately 92,000 people, many of them children. In Honduras, at least 108 children were killed in the first half of 2025, while an estimated 247,000 people remain internally displaced due to gang control, extortion, and political violence.9 In Mexico, reports of missing and disappeared children increased by more than 46 per cent compared to early 2024, rising from 875 reports to 1,280 cases in the first five months of 2025, according to official data.
The convergence of violence, displacement, and restricted access to safe migration pathways is increasing protection risks for millions of children. Simultaneously, severe funding constraints in 2025 forced several humanitarian actors to scale back or cease operations, particularly in border and high-risk urban areas, further limiting access to essential services. This has placed additional pressure on remaining responders, including UNICEF, to sustain life-saving assistance, strengthen child protection systems, and support governments and communities in addressing growing needs. With violence, displacement, and unsafe migration routes continuing to place children at heightened risk, sustained and flexible donor support remains critical to maintain essential services, expand protection interventions, and strengthen shock-responsive systems to safeguard the most vulnerable children across the region. Operational constraints further limited the scale and reach of the response.
To respond to humanitarian needs arising from migration, and recognizing the regional scope of this crisis, UNICEF launched the 2026 Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) appeal covering 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean: Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago. In 2026, an estimated 11.3 million people, including 3.9 million children, are expected to require humanitarian assistance across these countries due to migration and armed violence.11 Furthermore, UNICEF will implement multisectoral interventions in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico to address the humanitarian needs of children and adolescents in communities severely affected by armed violence. These interventions will focus on risks related to recruitment, exploitation, limited access to essential services, family separation, and the severe psychological impacts associated with these crises.