The Directorate General for Immigration and Integration Policies, of the Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, has recently published the “Monitoring Report on Unaccompanied Foreign Minors” for the year 2020. A new such report is published every six months, sharing updates on significant changes in the reception system and national legislation, as well as the most relevant data in relation to the presence of unaccompanied foreign minors in Italy.

As of 31 December 2020, there are 7 080 unaccompanied foreign minors in Italy: 96.4% of them are male, and 3.6% are female. Overall, there is an increase of 16.9% in their number in comparison with the same reporting period of 2019, although with a decrease of 34.4% in comparison with 2018.

In terms of age, 66.9% of unaccompanied foreign minors are 17 years old, 21.8% are 16 years old, 6.6% are 15 years old, and 4.8% are under 15 years old.

As far as origin is concerned, more than half of the unaccompanied foreign minors (68.9%) come from Bangladesh (1,558), Tunisia (1,084), Albania (972), Egypt (696), and Pakistan (574). The other most represented nationalities are Somalia (309), Ivory Coast (244), Guinea (242), Afghanistan (178), and Kosovo (193). Compared with 2019, an increase of unaccompanied foreign minors from Bangladesh, Tunisia, Egypt, Somalia and Afghanistan has been registered in 2020, and a decrease has been recorded in those from Albania.

As also noted for 2019, Sicily is the region that hosts the largest number of unaccompanied foreign minors (28.9%), followed by Friuli-Venezia Giulia (11%), Lombardia (9.9%) Emilia-Romagna (7.8%), Calabria (6%), and Puglia (5.9%).  

The abstract of this study is available in English here. In addition to these semi-annual monitoring reports, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies issues monthly statistical reports which can be found here.