Risk of exploitation and illegality for those who leave looking for work

In the first six months of this year, 2,572 minors were voluntarily removed from the reception system. In 2024 there were 7,357. These are children whose traces are lost (sometimes they re-emerge in other parts of the country) and who risk entering the black economy, committing crimes or ending up in the hands of criminals, who consider them very attractive, given their minor age.

The most frequent reason for removals is the desire to move from the places of disembarkation (65% of removals concern minors who entered Italy by sea) towards city centres where there are national communities of reference, more structured reception centres or more work opportunities. Or the children aim to reach relatives or family members living in other European countries, especially in Northern Europe.

"These young people arrive in our country with an already defined migration project," says Oliviero Forti, head of immigration at Caritas Italy, "which is to work. They have faced risky journeys and the times of our system are too long for them. They are mostly 16 or 17 years old and so they choose the quickest route, but entering unprotected circuits exposes them to dangerous drifts and slipping into illegality becomes easy'.

The difficulties of entering the Sai, the most articulated system of assistance, and the lengthening of the stay in the Cas - the centres for extraordinary assistance, where reception often stops at food and lodging - make the situation worse. 'We need to strengthen the Sai centres,' continues Forti, 'and create a system that guarantees the fluidity of the transition from the first to the second reception. There are often delays in school insertion due to bureaucratic reasons: the process should instead be speeded up, especially for the youngest children'.

In the first six months of this year, it was mainly Eritrean minors (28% of the total) who moved away, followed by Egyptians. "If lone foreign minors are not properly taken in, the risks they run are exploitation and social marginalisation. Welcoming these children well is a far-sighted choice of security and development,' says Piero Mangano, head of unaccompanied foreign minors at CNCA, the national coordination of reception communities.