Children immigrants, refugees or asylum seekers

cover del Focus tematico sui Minori di età migranti, rifugiati o richiedenti asilo: un quadro normativo

Migrant children and adolescents, refugees, asylum seekers, both accompanied and unaccompanied: the rights and protections. A legal framework


Being a migrant, refugee or asylum-seeking child leads to the need to reflect on two different safeguarding issues: being a foreigner and being a child. These are generally younger and adolescent children who have faced extremely serious personal and shared tragedies and traumas, then embarking on a journey of migration to escape situations of poverty, war, violence, abandonment and discrimination, either first in their own country or later during the journey to Italy. We are faced with individuals who are doubly vulnerable in a complex situation, whether being a migrant child, a foreigner, an international protection applicant, an asylum seeker, or a potential victim of trafficking, and therefore require the combination of different skills and professionalism. Only by adopting a multidisciplinary and transcultural approach that addresses the complex nature of the phenomenon from a psychological, social, educational, as well as legal point of view, is it possible to guarantee the protection of their basic rights and provide safeguards that are dynamically focused on the development of the individual. Of course, the recent outbreak of war in Ukraine has negatively affected the migration phenomenon.

Appended is the main international, European and national legislation on the subject of migrant, refugee or asylum-seeking children.