Violence driving Central America asylum claim surge: UN

San Josè: "Large-scale" gang violence in Central America is sending civilians fleeing across borders in numbers not seen since the 1980s, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday, appealing for urgent coordinated action.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said thousands of people from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala had sought asylum in other countries in the region in 2015.

This "Northern Triangle" of poverty-stricken countries is prey to violent gangs. The UNHCR said El Salvador has the highest homicide rate in the world.

"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," said UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards, according to a written summary released by the organization.

"Large-scale violence and persecution at the hands of armed criminal actors have now become, along with poverty and unemployment, primary drivers of refugee and migrant flows from the Northern Triangle," the summary said.

The UNHCR estimated that the United States received 250 percent more asylum applications by people from Central America last year than in 2013 and almost twice the number of 2014. 

These included rising numbers of unaccompanied women and children at risk of exploitation and violence.

"The crisis in Central America urgently requires a stepped-up protection response and a regional approach to sharing responsibility for this growing crisis," Edwards said.

"Government efforts require additional human and financial resources, in addition to the rapid establishment of more adequate infrastructure so that asylum-seeking and refugee children are effectively protected."

It said 3,423 people mostly from El Salvador and Honduras last year sought asylum in Mexico -- a 164 percent increase over 2013.

Costa Rica meanwhile registered 2,203 asylum claims in 2015 – a 176 per cent increase over 2013.

The UNHCR said it was working to build more reception centers for asylum seekers and urging legal measures to protect refugees from traffickers.