Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government secured parliamentary approval for a decree allowing migrants aged 16 or 17 to be held in adult reception centers. The Senate backed the decree in a 97-to-65 vote. This new measure grants police enhanced powers to verify the age claims of migrants and ensures compliance.
Under Italian and European legislation, unaccompanied young migrants receive preferential treatment. This protects them from expulsion and providing access to extensive welfare and support services. However, the approved decree challenges these norms by permitting minors aged 16 or 17 to be held in adult migrant reception camps when underage spaces are unavailable. They can be held for up to 150 days, despite Italian law considering a person an adult at 18.
The decree also allows adult migrant centers to temporarily host double their normal capacity during peak immigration periods. Additionally, it authorizes police to use X-rays for age estimation and facilitates the expulsion of young migrants found to have provided false information.
However, concerns have been raised by Unicef, the U.N. agency for children, suggesting that the decree may breach the Convention on the Rights of the Child and could compress fundamental rights for minors.
Prime Minister Meloni announced plans to build migrant identification and reception centers in Albania, aiming to accommodate up to 36,000 sea migrants annually. Italy has experienced a significant increase in migrant arrivals, with 152,000 disembarking this year, compared to 94,000 in the same period in 2022.
This surge poses a challenge to the government’s commitment to curb arrivals from northern Africa, with approximately 11% of this year’s arrivals being unaccompanied minors.
