The international organization Save the Children says that 14,000 unaccompanied minors reached Italy by sea in 2017. Only 56 were relocated to other European Union countries.
A reported 14,070 unaccompanied minors reached Italy by sea in 2017, some 13 percent of the total number of migrants who crossed the country's southern border, according to data released by Save the Children. The organization said that only 56 of the minors were relocated to other European countries and that 399 were granted formal access to the procedure before September 26, when the European relocation system was suspended.
Risk of exploitation for minors
The organization said the lack of an effective relocation system in Europe puts minors at risk of exploitation and that the majority of minors could not be tracked down as they are believed to have sought the help of traffickers and exploiters to cross Italy's northern borders. The data was presented at a conference on unaccompanied foreign minors promoted by the Centro Astalli, a Jesuit refugee center.
There are currently over 600 foreign minors in Palermo, including 121 who have just arrived in the Sicilian city, the organization said.
Efforts to focus on hosting facilities
A social worker who coordinates foster facilities for foreign minors in Palermo, Laura Purpura, said the city is ''proving very generous'' with families offering their support. "There are currently about 15 foster families with foreign minors although foster care is more suitable for small children. Most of the minors who arrive here are aged between 13 and 17 and could not be interested'' so the ideal thing would be for them to live in communities or apartments where they would be more independent and responsible, she said.
Alfonso Cinquemani, president of the Centro Astalli in Palermo, stressed the need to ''work on the quality of hosting facilities so as not to turn these communities into parking lots''. ''These youths are Palermo's children'', he said.