2024-08-18 07:34:22
They can be called Fatou, Ahmed, or Mohammed. And they can come from Gambia, Egypt or Tunisia. But all this is unknown. What we know is that the Italian State cleans the track almost 23,000 boys and girls undocumented immigrants from 2021 to 2023. Around 20 children a day who have disappeared in three years (more than 10,000 in the last year alone) and who may be in the hands of criminals, the number of it presents one of the greatest. Inefficiency of the collection system for immigrant children in Italy.
The data, the results of a recent study by the group Lost in Europemove the Italy as the first country (of the 15 European Union states analyzed) by the number of cases (almost half of the total, although large countries such as Spain and France do not provide their data), and indicate a deep phenomenon. A comparison with previous years shows this. In 2016, for example, the number of boys and girls in this situation was about 25,000 since 2008 (of which 11,500 have not yet appeared), according to data then released by the Missing Persons Office of the Transalpine Ministry of the Interior.
Stories are similar. These are mostly children They are in camp and they have gone without anyone discouraging them, or asking for them after the fact. This is also due to the fact that the number of legal guardians who should be their guardians is not enough, according to many humanitarian organizations and analysts. “When the staff is not available, counseling falls to the mayor, which makes it even more difficult difficult to controlsaid Francesco Cherubini, expert in International Law at the Luiss University in Rome.
Half in the south
According to Cherubini, the situation has worsened as well dismantling of the integration system SPRAR (as of 2018, at the initiative of Matteo Salvini’s League), which provides for the distribution of migrants throughout the country, favoring small towns over large cities. “The danger is that these migrants fall into the networks of prostitution and slavery“Cherubini pointed out. “In a center for underage girls they told us how Every night one or two young people disappeared and as it is often parked outside with people THE they are working“, Carla Garlatti, national defender of Children, said recently.
According to figures from the Italian Ministry of Labor and Social Policies, in December 2023, only 28% of the total number of unaccompanied migrant children in Italy were placed in existing structures in cities of up to 20,000 inhabitants, where integration is less harmful. Far from it, the global placement was also iniquitous, with more than half live in southern Italyand the rest are divided between the center and the north of the country.
The profile of adopted children, on the other hand, has made some changes over the years. “Currently, according to the available data, more than 20,000 migrant workers lag in the Italian admissions system, of which 88% are young. Among the first countries of origin is Egypt, Ukraine, Gambia, Tunisia and Guinea“Said Nicola Dell’Arciprete, response manager in Italy for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Gaps and differences
Dell’Arciprete also emphasized the need for “appropriate structures” for young people. “We often witness transfers to the first reception units, despite the availability of places in the second reception units, which are more appropriate to meet the needs of girls, boys and young people,” he said. In Italy, ” they continued regional gaps and differences in access to services, in education and training pathways and in hearing procedures of young people and immigrants and refugees,” he explained.
Save The Children has also expressed its concern about the decree approved last year by the Government of Giorgia Meloni which provides, among other things, that young people as young as 16 can be housed in institutions for the elderly when there is no place in institutions for small children. “The need to protect young people without making any distinction based on nationality or origin is a principle of supranational originalso provided for by our law. […] and it is the basic security measure with respect to which it is important not to return“, said Raffaela Milano, Director of Italy-Europe Programs of the organization.
Also, although on the issue of immigrant children, the Melon Government has not been particularly aggressive – the debate is far from what is in Spain – the same authority has also provided that immigrants who say they are young can be subjected to. medical examination to determine their age, “without the prior written consent of the Office of the Juvenile Prosecutor and without providing the necessary before the mediator linguistic-cultural”, the organization added. “The rules, together with a short period of 5 days to file an appeal against the action, put the youth especially the risk of ambush and wrongful discharge due to incorrect calculation of his age,” they added.
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