"I hope I get to cross all the borders on the road, get to my dad and go back to school, to help him and my family a little bit. I know that I’ll be able to get there, where they can’t hurt us anymore," Alicia narrates in a book that at first glance seems like a great fantasy story with colorful illustrations. However, you just have to look more closely at each of the pictures to realize that this isn’t a classic children's story.

It’s a publication by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) called "Caminos de luces y sombras" (Paths of shadows and lights), which compiles 16 stories of migrant children and teens. It was developed with the support of the Office of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) of the US Department of State. Child and adolescent institutes, civil society organizations and care centers from Mexico and Central America participated in the preparation of the material.

Children are currently traveling unaccompanied by a relative or responsible adult in Mesoamerica. According to data from the Department of National Security of the United States, in 2013, 38,759 unaccompanied children and adolescents were apprehended in the southwestern border of that country, and for 2014 the figure rose to 68,541.

All these children face many of the same hardships migrant adults do. For example, Nahil describes one of the episodes that he experienced on the way to the United States: "In spite of the pain, they grabbed me and took me with them, I walked like a robot so that the thorns wouldn’t get any deeper. That was the saddest thing, to see how they treated me, no matter what I was feeling. That's how they took me to the line. "

On the other hand, Lucas details his experience in dangerous journeys made by train: "The worst thing is when in the middle of that nightmare, the" beast "appears. Why do they call it that, right? But until you live it, you don’t believe it. I used to think that it was just a train, like anybody. Until being up there, you realize that fear, kidnappings, assaults and death also go up. "

IOM hopes that this book will become a support material in personnel capacity building for government institutions and civil society in the Mesoamerican region. But beyond that, IOM hopes that those who read the publication will reinforce their commitment to work for migrant children from the perspectives of human rights, gender, diversity, multiculturality and children’s best interests in order to have a positive impact on the quality of life of underaged migrants.

 

Read the book's digital version here.