Central America: The Unresolved Migration Conundrum

Abstract

Massive inflows of child migrants, especially the spike in 2014, created a humanitarian crisis in the USA due to inadequate accommodation and processing facilities. The most important common cause for the children’s exodus was the gang violence and insecurity, which makes most of them eligible for protection as refugees; under the Cartagena Declaration on refugees [although the situation is less clear under the 1951 UN refugee convention], the minors certainly deserve consideration for protection under the international humanitarian laws and the 1989 UN convention of the rights of the child. A child-sensitive approach, including appropriate legal support, is essential for effective determination of child migrants’ eligibility to protection. The US decision to allow country processing of child migrants’ protection claims, though useful, was inadequate. In any case, the new US administration abruptly terminated the programme in August 2017.