UNACCOMPANIED MIGRANT CHILDREN INVOLVED IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS
Amin’s story
Amin is a 15-year-old boy, bright, capable but not very educated; he left his family who could no longer take care of him and crossed half of the African continent to finally reach Europe and find assistance and refuge.
In Italy, he was accepted at a reception center for unaccompanied migrant children where he lived for three months. One day, together with other young people living in the center, he took part in what he believed to be more of a protest than a form of kidnapping. He recounts “…I was protesting just to get my pocket money… I was very worried about my mother, and I wanted the money to buy the card and call her….”.
Preventing the operators of the facility from leaving the building to obtain a resolution of the problem was a wrong choice. That is evident!
What was his level of awareness at that time? He stated that he never thought he was committing a crime. He also stated that he did not understand what was happening in his life.
Destiny’s story
Destiny, a 16-year-old girl, was convinced by a fellow countrywoman to leave her country to reach Europe where she was promised a job as a hairdresser. After a months-long journey and after being imprisoned and physically and sexually abused, she discovers that she has incurred a debt with and that upon arrival in Italy she will have to work as a prostitute herself to repay it.
In Italy, after a period spent on the street, forced to work as a prostitute, she encounters the anti-trafficking agency that offers her to leave the circuit of exploitation and enter a protection program. Destiny decides to denounce her exploiter and the network that brought her to Italy.
During the interviews with the Prosecutor, she stated that she was afraid of meeting her exploiters again and that she did not know what the outcome of her decision to report would it be.
Destiny stated that she felt protected and understood by the operators of the anti-trafficking body, but she also admitted that she did not understand what she was told about the judicial process.
The stories of Amin and Destiny are inspired by real events
From these stories but, above all, from the elements of the research conducted as part of the Child-Friendly Justice: Developing the concept of social court practices (CFJ-DCSCP project), it has revealed that unaccompanied migrant children, vulnerable people without the support of their parents or legal guardian, who are involved in criminal proceedings often find themselves unaware of the actions that led to this but, above all, unaware of the consequences they will have to face.
Recently, in the Palermo district, where this study was conducted, there has been an increase in the number of proceedings involving unaccompanied migrant children. During the research conducted within the CFJ-DCSC project, it emerged that the common types of offences for which they are suspected are violence behavior inside the reception centers: excessive protests for not handing over their pocket money, threats, declaration of false personal data; they are usually solved by judicial pardon or by the irrelevance of the fact. Then there are the cases of probation, which are not numerous.
When unaccompanied migrant children are involved in criminal proceedings, it is necessary to intervene promptly, before they reach adulthood, guaranteeing them not only to be judged by a specialized body, but also to be taken care of by a system that is made to measure for them and that, consistently, adapts its intervention to meet individual and judicial needs.
The ordinary courts, the offices of the public prosecutor, the Juvenile Court, and the offices of the juvenile prosecutor, the USSM and other agencies and organizations involved in the protection and reintegration of child (interviewed during the research phase), have expressed the need to intensify their efforts in a process of implementation of best practices both to improve the process of individual assessment and the mechanisms of referral and care of unaccompanied migrant children, victims or offenders.
This project is co-funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020).
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This document reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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