Unaccompanied foreign minors attending day centers in some Italian cities have their say on what they wish for in a voluntary legal guardian. Under a 2017 law to improve protection for foreign minors, the figure of the voluntary guardian was introduced nationwide.
Thirty-eight unaccompanied foreign minors attending day centers run by Save the Children in Rome, Milan and Turin have drawn up a list of five qualities which they think voluntary guardians should have. The youngsters aged between 14 and 17 came from Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea, Egypt, Morocco, Mali, Bangladesh, Ghana and Senegal.
Their list stated:
- Help us to obtain the documents we are entitled to (passport, permit of stay, tax code, health card, residency, identity card)
- Come to see where we live and the conditions we live in, keeping in constant contact to ensure that the conditions are adequate
- Meet us and get to know our interests and passions so we can follow them in Italy too
- Build a relationship of trust with us, always respecting our culture, customs and religion and letting us get to know your own
- Give us advice on schooling and guide us in our formative decisions, helping us in the passage to majority age, so we are ready and do not find ourselves alone or on the streets.
The main expectation is that the guardians become a point of reference, a guide.
Voluntary guardians are private individuals who offer to take legal responsibility for an unaccompanied foreign minor after they have received a special training. The figure of the voluntary guardian was introduced under a 2017 law improving protection for unaccompanied foreign minors in Italy. They are selected and trained by the relevant regional child protection authority and can then have their name inscribed in a special register at the local juvenile court.
Youngsters often without contact with guardian
Save The Children says the minors taking part in the project "shared their thoughts and desires concerning the figure of the voluntary guardian who will accompany the minor in many areas of their life". It emerged that under the previous system of public guardianship "many youngsters had no contact with their guardian and so found adult points of reference in the workers at the reception centers where they were staying".