This article, produced by the BBC, reports on the growing number of unaccompanied children who immigrate to the United States from Mexico and Central America each year. According to the article, in a recent statement President Barack Obama has described the growing influx of unaccompanied children migrating to the United States as an "urgent humanitarian situation."
Recent estimates place the number of children who will enter the US illegally from Central America and Mexico this year at around 60,000, says the article. The number of girls and children under the age of 13 who come into the country without parents is also on the rise. And the United States federal government has reportedly appropriated $1.4 billion to address this mounting concern, including providing temporary housing for the children at two military bases in the US.
The children typically enter by crossing the Mexico-US border and migrate from places like Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador where they are often escaping domestic violence, violent gangs, and extreme poverty. And in their travels they may be subject to sexual assaults, forced labor, and hunger, among other things. Border agents apprehended nearly double the number of unaccompanied children crossing into the US in 2013 as they did in 2012, adding to the sense of urgency in addressing this issue.