A 16-year-old boy from Cameroon, identified only as J., was recently forced to spend 96 days in the migrant hotspot of Cifali, in western Sicily, MEDU highlighted in a statement on Wednesday, December 27.

"Like him, many unaccompanied foreign minors remain in hotspots while waiting to be transferred elsewhere for more than the 30 days -- recently increased to 45," the group said in a statement.

According to the team of the medical charity, "an adult [only] stays on average seven days in the same centers of first hosting," the organization noted, adding that any stay in these facilities should only last until the end of identification procedures.

"For J., the days spent at the Cifali hotspot were slow, without certainty on when his transfer would occur," psychotherapists working on MEDU's local team testified, stressing that the teens they had met had expressed "fear and rage."

"They feared being repatriated, they were afraid for an uncertain future" and they expressed "rage because they had been suspended in an undefined limbo for the past three months", the organization explained.

"The facility is in quite a precarious condition, without heating and with only one shower with hot water for an average of 100 guests," they added, highlighting that the facility was surrounded by high gates "under the constant surveillance of a significant contingent of security forces and of the army," and could not be left easily.

Like Libya in Italy

MEDU officials said many migrants were reminded of the abuse and torture they had endured along their migration routes and in Libyan prisons "with the consequent emergence or intensification of post-traumatic stress disorders."

However, there aren't enough spaces in Italy for minors like J.

"As of October 31 2023, 23,798 unaccompanied foreign minors were registered in Italy for a total of 6,006 available places in SAI (Integrated Hosting Services) facilities, as well as a few hundred places in FAMI (Asylum Migration and Integration Fund) facilities.

"This mathematically translates into the fact that only 25% of unaccompanied foreign minors will find a place to stay in SAI or FAMI facilities while the remaining 75% will be in part hosted by families or in authorized structures under regional or municipal responsibility.

"The unlucky ones, like J., will have to wait in a state of limbo for more than three months, without the possibility of moving, while sleeping in huge dormitories without heating and with an uncertain future ahead of them," the organization lamented.

The statement ended with an appeal: "MEDU firmly asks the government to promptly transfer unaccompanied minors to adequate hosting facilities, where they can enjoy all the safeguards established by international conventions and national laws."