Child immigration crisis

Unaccompanied minors and a family stand next to Honduran border policemen after being detained for the lack of identity documents at a porous border known as La Montanita in the small village of Suyapa, on the border of Honduras with Guatemala, June 20, 2014.

Thousands of young people each year are hoping to reach the U.S. from their impoverished and violent homes in Central America.

In the eight months ending on June 15, the U.S. had detained about 52,000 children at the Mexican border, double the figure the year earlier.

Arizona

Children sleep and watch television in a holding cell where hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children are being processed and held at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Nogales Placement Center in Nogales, Arizona, June 18, 2014.

Honduras

Children walk past an abandoned house at the gang-infested 14 de Marzo neighbourhood in Tegucigalpa, May 23, 2014.

Migration by unaccompanied children from countries in the "northern triangle" of Central America, comprising Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, is gaining attention as a humanitarian crisis in the United States, while U.S. authorities are trying to discourage the inflow of illegal immigrants who will almost certainly be deported.

Since October last year, 52,000 unaccompanied children have arrived on the U.S. border with Mexico, according to the Obama administration, and most are fleeing gang and drug violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Texas

Children sleep in a holding cell at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility, in Brownsville, Texas, June 18, 2014.

Mexico

People hoping to reach the U.S. ride atop the wagon of a freight train, known as La Bestia (The Beast) in Ixtepec, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, June 18, 2014.

Mexico

A Honduran child, who will be accompanied by his family when they travel to reach northern Mexico or the U.S., sleeps at the Todo por ellos (All for them) immigrant shelter in Tapachula, Chiapas, in southern Mexico, June 26, 2014.

Honduras

A woman and her daughter cover themselves to avoid being photographed inside a bus, while arriving at the Honduran Center for Returned Migrants after being deported from Mexico, in San Pedro Sula, northern Honduras, June 20, 2014.

Arizona

A few boys try to make calls as they are joined by hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children that are being processed and held at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Nogales Placement Center in Nogales, Arizona, June 18, 2014.

Mexico

Honduran citizen Brenda Maribel Perdomo, 28, receives a kiss from her son Jefferson, 10, at the Todo por ellos (All for them) immigrant shelter in Tapachula, Chiapas, in southern Mexico, June 26, 2014.

Honduras

A Honduran border policeman asks for documents from passengers in a bus heading to Guatemala, at a border checkpoint in Corinto, northern Honduras, June 20, 2014.

Honduras

Unaccompanied minors and a family sit in the bed of a police truck after being detained for the lack of identity documents at a porous border known as La Montanita in the small village of Suyapa, on the border of Honduras with Guatemala, June 20, 2014.

Texas

Detainees sleep in a holding cell at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility in Brownsville, Texas, June 18, 2014.