Unaccompanied Foreign Minors in Italy: Procedures and Practices

According to the Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers No 535/1999, Article 1, laying down the “Regulation on the tasks of the Committee for Foreign Minor, in conformity with Articles 33(2) and (2- bis) of the Legislative Decree No 286 of 25 July 1998”, in Italy unaccompanied foreign minor (in brief UAM) refers to “a minor who does not have Italian or other EU citizenship, has not applied for asylum and is, for any reason, within the territory of the State without care or representation by their parents or other adults who are legally responsible for them under existing Italian laws”. This provision was defined as the solution to a social phenomenon that became particularly significant number-wise in the Country in the 1990s. Despite the attention of the Government, the actual number of UAMs within the territory of the State is difficult to define, since most of them do not fulfil residence regulations and move a lot within Italian territory. Over the past seven years, the number of UAMs has remained stable with an average of 7/8,000 per year, and a peak of 8,461 in 2013. This figure will be greatly exceeded in 2014. The paper analyzes the evolution of UAM’s presences in Italy, the UAM characteristics, the migratory projects and some aspects of the procedures and the social practices regarding UAMs in Italy.