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UN refugee agency reports record number of people fleeing violence in Central America

Xinhua, April 6, 2016 Adjust font size:

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday the number of people fleeing violence in Central America "has surged to levels not seen since the region was wracked by armed conflicts in the 1980s," the deputy UN spokesman said here.

"As in previous years, preliminary data from 2015 shows that the United States remains the main country receiving asylum applications from the Northern Triangle -- that's El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala -- almost twice the number of 2014," Farhan Haq said at a daily news briefing here.

But last year, Mexico also saw an increase in asylum claims of 65 percent since 2014, and Belize, Nicaragua and Panama are seeing similar sharp increases in asylum requests from people fleeing the Northern Triangle countries, he said.

"UNHCR says that action is urgently needed to ensure that unaccompanied children and others receive the protection to which they are entitled," he said. Enditem