Thousands of underage refugees in Italy are seeking asylum, and protection

Since 2013 the number of refugees, asylum seekers and displaced persons in the world has risen higher than that recorder after the Second World War. Almost half of this population is now made up of minors. In Italy alone, in August 2016, the number of minors arriving was at 18,500 (excluding land arrivals). In nine cases out of ten these were unaccompanied minors. Using these numbers, Fabio Perocco, director of the Professional Master’s Programme on Immigration, explains the importance and the urgency of addressing the issue of foreign minors seeking asylum in Italy.

A conference entitled “The condition of foreign minors seeking asylum" will take place on Friday November 18th at 9:15am at the Santa Margherita Auditorium of the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. At this conference, experts from Italy and around the world will examine the social, legal, medical and psychological condition of under-aged foreign asylum seekers and critically analyze the policies and practices of acceptance, not to mention the structural causes underling the refugee phenomenon.

"It is a huge phenomenon that brings with it many problems - explains Fabio Perocco - first of all, the condition of extreme social vulnerability of these children and young people. Then, the inadequacy of the Italian welcome system for minors that sometimes leaves room for arbitrary conduct on the part of institutions and individual officials, up to unlawful detention. Finally, the labor and sexual exploitation which they can come into contact with from criminal organizations (and others) as a result of ineffective protection and acceptance that drives them, in many cases, into the isolated margins of society.

"The recognition of the special situation of unaccompanied minors has always been problematic in Italy – adds Marco Ferrero (lecturer at Ca’ Foscari) regarding the legal status of minors. Despite a formal equivalence to the Italian minor, practices and even discriminatory rules have limited and often prevented the protection of foreign children these days, especially the so-called "older child", those close to coming of age: undergoing invasive medical tests, taken away from full health protection, hampered in giving continuity to their legal residence upon coming of age, now deliberately "confused" with international protection and left in unprotected situations as minors and as asylum seekers. The reason is obvious: local governments are relieved of expenses and liabilities which they are less and less inclined to support. This is a clear violation of fundamental rights that, in the case of minor asylum seekers, is twice as serious because help is only temporary made available and only in emergency, interventions are often illegitimate and even counter-productive.”

Professors and experts will focus on a comparison of Italian case and the situation in Germany. "In 2015 - said Gunter Friesenhahn University of Koblenz - more than 1 million refugees arrived in Germany, a third of whom were minors. Social services have an obligation to help these children, but they have to take the political conditions and restricting laws into consideration, and this is a cause of potential conflict among professionals."