In this MSNBC video interview, Leslie Velez, Senior Protection Officer for the UN High Commissioner on Refugees, discusses the humanitarian crisis behind the large numbers of children heading to the United States from Central America.

UNHCR issued a report in March 2014 – Children on the Run - analyzing the effects of violence, insecurity and abuse in communities and at home based on interviews with more than 400 unaccompanied children from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico  held in federal custody.

Ms Velez also submitted Congressional testimony based on the UNHCR work for a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the current crisis held on June 25, 2014.