He northern triangle of Central America -Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico- is one of the most violent areas of the world also for those who decide to emigrate with their eyes set on USA. And at migrant es women y adolescent, vulnerabilities, and with them the dangers, multiply. When they decide to leave, many times leaving scenes of violence and extreme poverty, they already put the morning after pill in their brief travel bag, knowing that they are exposed to being raped along the way. They also use other protection methods like going disguised as men y always dirty, as formulas to repel aggressions. This is how humanitarian worker Janaina Hirato, gender specialist in emergencies from the NGO explains it. Plan International. The organization has presented the conclusions of a study conducted with young central american women in which they detail why they emigrate and how their transit has been.
In the opinions of more than 260 teenagers between 15 and 19 years in situation of mobility interviewed for the report, there are many common denominators. The sexual and gender violence in the place of origin motivate the decision to emigrate in many cases. The lack of employment and the difficulty accessing education Complete the motivations. After the hard decision of emigratethe path can become another ordealas can be seen from their testimonies.
dirt as protection
like that of a 15 year old teenagerwho requests anonymity, of Venezuelan origin interviewed by the oenegé Plan International in Mexico: “For women, going through the jungle is the most dangerous; My mom dressed me as a man, with very big, baggy clothes, a cap to hide my hair, and she was always dirty so they wouldn’t try to rape me. But there are still violations.”
and the one of Franciscaa 17-year-old Venezuelan refugee in a shelter in Mexico, who says that part of the journey was to cross the dangerous jungle of the Darien between Colombia and Panama, which more than 250,000 migrants have crossed in the last year: “To get to Mexico, we had to cross the Darien for five days and in the jungle I fell with my son. Then a friend took him and I did not see him for six days. I did not know if he was alive or dead. Francisca recounts that they were assaulted by armed criminals and lost a large part of their money and belongings.
“Darién is hell, it’s more than five days walking in the jungle, with mud up to your back, with bugs biting, without food and very afraid,” a 15-year-old compatriot abounds. Francisca when remembering the passage through the jungle area to add: “There are times when, they explain, they rape everyone who goes, whether they are men or women but it didn’t happen to us.”
Another 15-year-old teenager, who says her name is Carmen although it is not his real name to try to protect himself, it also describes a bitter journey where he had to leave his books and part of your most valuable belongings.
The report highlights that 7.9 million migrants in Latin America and the Caribbean are under 18 years of age and specifies that girls and adolescents represent 20% of the total number of women from these countries who emigrate. “The violence that lives in their countries of origin increases and is transformed during migration, at which time they are exposed to much greater risks such as human trafficking, kidnapping and extortion,” warns an expert from the entity. The Regional Director of Plan International for the Americas and the Caribbean, Dénora Cóbar, has emphasized that, according to the report, Central American adolescents suffer discrimination and serious situations of violence in their daily lives that are repeated in migratory transit. This is confirmed by the testimony of Miriam, a Honduran in transit to the US.