A new hub is to be set up for unaccompanied minors in the northern Italian city of Bologna. Due to open later this month, the center will host up to 50 young migrants.
The town of Sasso Marconi will soon host a hub for unaccompanied foreign minors currently living in the area of Bologna. The building, Villa Angeli, has been made available for the purpose by the local council and can host up to 50 minors.
Minors to be transferred to SAI facilities
The hub should open at the end of September. Minors hosted there will later be transferred to facilities in the SAI network (Italy's system of reception and integration) or to other authorized centers.
A system will also be set up to monitor the movement of minors after their arrival in the country, organizers said.
The framework agreement that led to the creation of the hub was based on a number of conditions, including revising criteria on the national redistribution of foreign unaccompanied children and teens, considering the number of minors present in the metropolitan area, and the support of the interior ministry for the return of minors to the communities they left, as well as the organization of a financial plan.
Maximum stay of 30 days
The idea to create a hub was discussed at a meeting on September 6 between regional agencies and representatives.
"The hub will have to undertake the role of initial hosting to then guarantee the passage to the system of secondary hosting SAI within 30 days," said Bologna health and welfare councillor Luca Rizzo Nervo.
He explained that health screening procedures, the determination of the age of a minor and activities to track down potential relatives in Italy will need to be carried out within the 30-day period "as part of the framework of shared governance between the municipality and prefecture."
According to Rizzo Nervo, "a more effective and improved national redistribution of minors needs to be guaranteed, because there are currently no constraints" with minors "fleeing and arriving in Bologna - in fact we have so many."
The position of Bologna's municipal government is clear: national redistribution criteria must take into account "the burden of spontaneous arrivals, so the 500 who are already in Bologna must be considered," Rizzo Nervo added.