U.S.-bound, 19,000 migrant children cross dangerous jungle - UNICEF

FILE PHOTO: Migrants, mostly Haitians, arrive by boat in Acandi to cross into Panama and continue north, in Acandi, Colombia September 23, 2021. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - On their trek north towards the United States, some 19,000 migrant children have crossed the dangerous jungles that sprawl the border between Panama and Colombia so far this year, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF said Monday.

The number of children who crossed the Darien Gap is almost three times higher than the total for the previous five years, it said in a statement, adding that one in five migrants crossing the border are children, and half of them is under five years old.