Foreign minors an ‘unsustainable emergency,’ say mayors of northeastern Italy

Rome: Local mayors in the northeastern Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia have written a joint document addressed to the interior and economy ministers to denounce the emergency posed by the high number of unaccompanied foreign minors.

The “constant detection” of unaccompanied foreign minors has become an “unsustainable emergency”, in particular for municipalities that are closest to the border with Slovenia, according to a joint document drafted by the mayors of Gorizia, Trieste, Udine, Pordenone, Cividale del Friuli and Monfalcone, six cities of the northeastern region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Friuli is one of the regions with the highest number of unaccompanied foreign minors, mostly male and in particular Egyptian citizens.

The document, signed on September 19 in Gorizia by the representatives of the six municipalities, was sent to the ministers of Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, Economy and Finance, Giancarlo Giorgetti, Friuli Venezia Giulia governor, Massimiliano Fedriga, and the national and regional presidents of the association of Italian municipalities ANCI, respectively Gaetano Manfredi and Dorino Favot.

The problems reported in the document included the management of reimbursements by the central government, “which suggests that the sums owed and already spent for hosting will not be paid back. As of today, the municipalities of Trieste and Gorizia boast expenses that have not been reimbursed, respectively, of 22 and 4 million euros, Udine of over 3 million, Pordenone of about 3 million, Cividale of nearly 2.5 million and Monfalcone of 600,000 euros. This is weighing on municipal budgets,” noted the document.

A second issue, the mayors noted, concerns the “management of relocations given the growing difficulty in finding available socio-educational communities.”

For this reason, continued the document, “it would be helpful to activate a technical committee at a national level to change the legislative framework”, “in favour of an organized and systematic management,” and the creation of an “inter-institutional coordination network at the regional level.”

According to the mayors, urgent action is necessary to approve legislation “placing unaccompanied minors under the care of the Government, through the Prefectures, given that municipalities are “objectively unable” to respond to the emergency, in particular those with the highest number of requests, the document said.