Rome/Prensa Latina
During 2023, 29,315 people disappeared in Italy, of them 21,951 minors, and there were 17,535 missing foreign children, a figure higher than the 13,000 the previous year, a report indicates today.
A report presented by the office of the Extraordinary Commissioner for Missing Persons, María Luisa Pellizzari, published on the official website of that entity, considers the fact that in 75 percent of the cases, the missing persons were under 18 years of age alarming. , mostly unaccompanied immigrants.
In an analysis based on these data, published on the website of the newspaper Avvenire, the fact is highlighted that after the complaints presented, many of the latter were found, of them 5,723 alive and 2 dead, but of 11,810 still Their whereabouts are unknown, 91 percent of them male.
The immigrant minors who remain missing come mainly from Tunisia, with 3,362, as well as from Egypt, with 2,861; Guinea, with two thousand 589; Ivory Coast, with 1,572 and Afghanistan, with 1,106.
The majority were 17-year-olds, for a total of 6,146 people of that age, and it is presumed that many escaped from shelters and left Italy to join family and friends in France or other countries, mainly in northern Europe.
There is fear that a significant number of these lost children will join the ranks of criminal organizations or become victims of sex trafficking and, according to what analyst Marco Birolini pointed out in the newspaper Avvenire, there is a danger that some will be used for organ trafficking.
Pellizzari pointed out in this regard that “the Office’s activity has been oriented once again towards an interdisciplinary and multisectoral approach, to address a phenomenon that is very complex and that raises concern and alarm in public opinion.”
For his part, the head of the Ministry of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, noted on this matter that this entity “has always reserved its maximum commitment to confront this complex phenomenon that affects thousands of people every year, mostly minors and fragile subjects.”
A total of 14,159 people whose disappearance was reported in 2023 were located during that year, to which is added the recovery of another 1,573 lost before that period, the source specifies.
#foreign #minors #disappeared #Italy
