A/HRC/33/53 distant destinations. There are three main categories of unaccompanied and separated children, each of which must receive a different response: (a) Children separated from their family or caregivers during the move. Civil society and international organizations and social workers should take measures in reception and transit centres to enable prompt family reunification; (b) Children who started their journey as unaccompanied or separated children and are currently travelling with groups of people. Most are males aged 14-17 years who avoid being registered or pretend to be young adults; (c) Children who have interrupted their migration owing to a lack of resources. In the context of the European migrant crisis, children in this category are often found in urban areas in Greece and Italy and are particularly vulnerable to all types of abuse, exploitation, trafficking, enrolment by criminal groups and violence. II. Main reasons why children and adolescents are forced or encouraged to migrate unaccompanied 7. The reasons why individuals migrate are often multilayered and depend on the country of origin, social and cultural background and personal or familial aspirations. In most cases of child migration, the immediate and structural causes are closely interlinked. 8. There are often important differences in the motivations of migrant children who apply for asylum and the motivations of those who do not. Children who seek asylum often flee their country out of fear of persecution or because of a generalized state of violence. Children who do not apply for asylum are often moved by the desire to find a better future. Moreover, such children do not always want to be registered or be cared for in reception centres, which greatly limits the information available on them. 9. Information provided by Central American States shows that, while there are several reasons why children migrate, the common factor is the multiple violations of human rights of children in their countries of origin: migrant children lack protection from different manifestations of violence, poverty, lack of opportunities, poor access to education and health services, maltreatment at home, different kinds of threats, intimidation and insecurity. 10. In Latin America, the low level of public education needs to be addressed. In the case of migrants from the “northern triangle” (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras), the level of education is insufficient to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty that constitutes a key factor in children’s migration.4 11. There has been much discussion in Central American countries about the new phenomenon of forced displacement, including of children and youth. There is an increasing movement of young people forced by threats and violence to migrate. Some States, such as Honduras, accept that forced displacement (internal and external) is the most important cause of migration, while others, like El Salvador, emphasize that the reasons for migrating are multilayered. 12. Some countries, like Colombia, have reported that many teenagers have left their places of origin owing to violence and have never applied for refugee status. This phenomenon is also beginning to show in some isolated cases in the Dominican Republic, 4 4 Information provided by the Dirección de Investigación en Derechos Humanos, Procurador de los Derechos Humanos, Guatemala.