EFE (via 14ymedio), Panama City, 7 October 2023 — Cuba and Honduras are the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean with the most children uprooted due to climate-related dangers, in a region where floods and storms caused the displacement of 2.3 million minors and adolescents between 2016 and 2021, UNICEF said on Friday.
“Every day, floods, landslides and hurricanes are uprooting more and more children and adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Unicef’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Garry Conille.
The report “Children Displaced by Climate Change” says that between 2016 and 2021 in the region, “Cuba and Honduras recorded the highest number of children and adolescents displaced due to climate-related hazards in absolute numbers,” with 670,000 and 370,000, respectively.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of minors and adolescents displaced in those six years by floods and storms rises to 2.3 million, according to the report of the United Nations Children’s Fund or UNICEF.
Worldwide, these phenomena caused the forced displacement of 40.9 million children in the same period
Worldwide, those phenomena caused the forced displacement of 40.9 million children in the same period, mainly in China and the Philippines.
In these circumstances, “children and adolescents not only lose their homes, but also their access to education, health, water and protection,” Conille stressed.
In the coming decades, “this worrying trend will only accelerate, giving rise to a generation of ’climate migrant children and adolescents’ throughout the region,” said the regional director of UNICEF.
In the next 30 years it is expected that in Latin America and the Caribbean floods alone will displace 4.6 million children, the report indicates, although it warns that “due to the increase in the frequency and severity of meteorological phenomena as a result of climate change, the real figures will almost certainly be higher.”
In Brazil, the document mentions, floods and storms could displace 1.5 million children and adolescents in the next 30 years
In Brazil, the document mentions, floods and storms could displace 1.5 million children and adolescents in the next 30 years, and in Mexico, up to 672,000.
In this context, UNICEF urged governments, the private sector and donors to protect minors and adolescents by ensuring that essential services, including education and health, “can respond to shocks, are easy to move and include most people, such as those who are already uprooted.”
The UN body asked to prepare children and young people to live in a world of climate crisis, “by improving their capacity for adaptation and resilience and encouraging their participation in the search for inclusive solutions.”
That is why UNICEF also urged to give priority to children and young people, “including those who have already been uprooted, in action and financing in the field of disasters and climate, in humanitarian and development policy, and in investments to prepare for a future that is already here.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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