On August 31, 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned Italy for failing to provide adequate reception and protection to a minor girl from Ghana who had been a victim of previous violence in her home country and in Libya, thereby violating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
This information was reported in a statement by ASGI (Association for Legal Studies on Immigration) and the humanitarian organization INTERSOS, which supported the girl’s appeal.
After arriving by sea, the minor had subsequently reached Como, where she was placed in a prefectural reception center run by the Red Cross, which was not suitable for accommodating vulnerable minors. From here, by filing an urgent appeal with the ECHR, she had requested and obtained a precautionary transfer to a facility for minors.
The European Court of Human Rights has now issued a judgment, concluding that “the applicant’s stay in the Osvaldo Cappelletti center, which apparently was not equipped to provide her with adequate psychological support, along with the prolonged inaction of the national authorities regarding her situation and the needs of a particularly vulnerable minor, constituted a violation of her right not to be subjected to inhuman treatment, as protected by Article 3 of the Convention.”
It is worth noting that during the period 2016-2017, the situation in Como was characterized by a high presence of migrants attempting to cross the Italian-Swiss border, undergoing multiple readmissions and, for a brief period, transfers to the Taranto hotspot. From September 2016 until December 2018, migrants were hosted at the prefectural institution center on Via Teodolinda, managed by the Red Cross.
Minors, women, and vulnerable individuals coexisted in conditions of overcrowding, in a space characterized by inadequate services, with some discomfort alleviated by the intervention of humanitarian organizations.
Since 2016, ASGI has been present in Como, conducting monitoring and legal support interventions for vulnerable individuals and minors, including M.A.
Unaccompanied minors deprived of adequate reception and protection: the case of M.A.
Still a minor, M.A. arrived on the Italian shores in October 2016. Despite being identified as an unaccompanied foreign minor from the outset, she was initially housed at the “Capitaneria” Center in Reggio Calabria, lacking the necessary assistance and protection and living in degraded material conditions in a facility defined by the Prosecutor as unsuitable for her psychophysical development, due to overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions.
In this reception center, the hosted minors did not receive any services, financial or material assistance, and were left without a guardian.
Subsequently transferred to another center for minors, M.A., due to uncertainty about her legal status and the absence of prospects, voluntarily decided to leave the reception program and head to Northern Italy.
Upon arriving in Como, the minor was accommodated for eight months at the prefectural reception center on Via Teodolinda in Como, living in a container in a situation of overcrowding with adults of different nationalities, with no actual presence of educators or operators during the night.
Just a few days after entering the reception facility, during the collection of statements for asylum applications, the applicant claimed to be a victim of sexual violence. As reported in the judgment, a psychologist from Doctors Without Borders certified that the girl “had been exposed to multiple traumatic experiences throughout her life, such as abuse, harassment, and sexual violence” and that “her stay in the Center, where unaccompanied minors were accommodated alongside adults and where there were no adequate services for the needs of victims of sexual violence, risked aggravating her fragile psychological condition.” Both the international protection procedure and the request for placement in suitable facilities for vulnerabilities experienced numerous delays due to the substantial inaction of the original legal guardian, who was responsible for the reception facility, and the subsequent guardian appointed following a request to the juvenile court, supported by ASGI and INTERSOS. Therefore, further intervention by ASGI was necessary to urge the competent institutions to transfer her to a suitable facility. However, in the absence of responses, M.A. turned to the European Court of Human Rights to request an immediate transfer and the appointment of a new guardian.
The Court, partially accepting the requests made, ordered the minor’s transfer to a suitable facility the day after receiving the application.
Violation of inhuman and degrading treatment
By accepting the appeal, the judges in Strasbourg thus established a violation of Article 3 of the ECHR (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment), condemning Italy to non-pecuniary damages for the suffering experienced by the foreign citizen.
In particular, the Court, recalling the principles related to migrant minors and vulnerable individuals and emphasizing that “authorities must be particularly attentive when dealing with vulnerable individuals, ensuring greater protection for them, as their ability or willingness to make a complaint is often compromised” (par. 38), took into account both the conditions existing in the center and the authorities’ inaction in the face of the multiple requests made by the applicant to be transferred to a center for minors, despite her particular vulnerability being known.
It is useful to highlight that both the urgent and regular appeals were initiated directly by the applicant, even though she was a minor and despite the appointment of a guardian. What happened to M.A. is in contrast to the rights and principles enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, which are never derogable, as the Court has already stated in the Darboe vs Italy case, even when the flow of migrants at the external borders of the European Union becomes particularly pressing.
This judgment, concerning a case from 2017, highlights how the reception of unaccompanied foreign minors has long-standing serious issues in adequately addressing the protection of those who arrive in Italy already as victims of abuse and suffering caused by dangerous migration routes where they have been forced to live in vulnerable conditions due to the lack of legal pathways.
It is unacceptable that minors and vulnerable individuals should endure further suffering in a reception system that does not prioritize the protection of human dignity and the best interests of minors, despite the legislation that Italy has adopted and is obliged to apply.
