The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled against Italy for the "inhuman treatment" of an unaccompanied migrant minor, presumed to be a victim of sexual abuse, because the teen girl was held for nearly eight months in a hosting center for adults which was not fit to provide her with adequate psychological assistance.

Italy was sentenced for the "prolonged inaction of national authorities regarding her situation and her needs as a particularly vulnerable minor".

The court ruled that Italy will have to pay €6,000 in compensation for moral damages and an additional €4,000 to cover legal expenses.

The plaintiff in the case filed in Strasbourg in September 2017 is a Ghanaian citizen born on November 16, 1999, who reached the southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria by boat on October 22, 2016.

Authorities were aware of youth's vulnerability

Five days after her arrival in Reggio Calabria, the Ghanaian youth was transferred to a hosting facility for minors, the Institute Cereso Santa Maria degli Angeli in the town of Bagnara Calabra. But a few months later, on February 16, 2017, the teen fled and reached Como, in Lombardy, where she was placed in the Osvaldo Cappelletti hosting centre for adults.

While recognizing that the girl was initially placed in a facility for minors, which she fled, the court ruled against Italy over her lengthy stay at the facility for adults in Como, despite repeated appeals by he lawyer to authorities, which were perfectly aware of the girl's vulnerability.

Young Ghanaian allegedly raped in Ghana and Libya

The girl, in fact, repeatedly stated that she had been raped in Ghana and then in Libya. The young migrant left the center in Como only after her lawyer requested and obtained the urgent intervention of the ECHR.

The Strasbourg court told the Italian government that the teen needed to be transferred to a facility that could guarantee adequate conditions for an unaccompanied minor. On December 22, 2017, the interior ministry granted her international protection.