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Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) - Italy (RATIFICATION: 2000)

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The Committee takes due note of the detailed information in the Government’s report on the measures taken to ensure the application of the provisions of the Conventions.

Article 7(2) of the Convention. Effective and time-bound measures. Clause (d). Identifying and reaching out to children at special risk. Unaccompanied migrant and refugee children. The Committee notes the Government’s information, in its report, according to which the main dynamic change in Italian society is represented by the growing presence on the national territory of foreigners, especially minors, who sometimes arrive in Italy unaccompanied, thus falling into a serious condition of social vulnerability and with the risk of falling into child labour circuits.

Indeed, the Committee notes that, according to a joint UNICEF, UNHCR and IOM report of 2019 entitled “At a crossroads: Unaccompanied and separated children in their transition to adulthood in Italy”, between 2014 and 2018, more than 70,000 unaccompanied and separated children arrived in Italy by sea, 90 per cent of whom were between 15 and 17 years old. The report reveals that young migrants and refugees travelling along the central Mediterranean route are more likely to experience exploitation and abuse in transit countries, including labour and sexual exploitation, than migrants over the age of 25. These incidents, in addition to the urgent need to earn money for themselves and send remittances home to the family may have long-term psychological, emotional and social impacts on those arriving in Italy by sea and can sometimes play a role in the way in which young migrants perceive and react to the risks of labour and/or sexual exploitation to which they may be exposed to in Italy. This exposes young people to the risk of illegal work, or even of being pushed into illegal activities. A more recent 2023 press release by UNICEF indicates that numbers are now estimated to be at more than 100,000 unaccompanied and separated children, in addition to more than 170,000 refugees who have arrived in Italy from the northern–eastern border as a consequence from the war in Ukraine, among them 50,000 children.

In this regard, the Committee notes the Government’s detailed information on the measures taken to protect foreign children in the country. In particular, it takes note of the Su.Pr.Eme Italia Programme, which falls within the scope of the three-year plan to combat labour exploitation in agriculture and gang mastering, and aims to establish an Integrated Extraordinary Plan of interventions to combat and overcome all forms of serious exploitation and marginalization and vulnerability of migrant workers in the locations presenting the greatest difficulty in the five Regions of southern Italy on which the initiative is focused. The five areas of intervention are housing, work, services, integration and governance. The Committee also takes note of the P.I.U. Su.Pr.Eme project (personalized pathways out of exploitation), which aims to establish an interregional system action to implement measures for the social and labour integration of migrants to prevent and combat labour exploitation in agriculture. Moreover, the Government indicates that it has renewed the SIM Unaccompanied Minor Information System to protect minors from exploitation. The SIM monitors the presence of unaccompanied minors, tracing their movements within Italy and managing their identity information, status and location.

The Committee also takes of the adoption of Law No. 47 of 7 April 2017 on provisions on protection measures for unaccompanied foreign minors, which provides for an absolute prohibition of refoulement at the borders, and an integrated system of care and verification of identity and age, in order to prevent minors from ending up in the circuits of the worst forms of exploitation. The care system provides for integration between the first reception facilities, set up by the Ministry of Interior and dedicated exclusively to minors, with second reception facilities spread throughout the national territory.

Considering that unaccompanied migrant or refugee children are particularly at risk of being exposed to the worst forms of child labour, the Committee requests the Government to continue taking effective and time-bound measures to protect these children from the worst forms of child labour and to provide for their rehabilitation and social integration. It also requests the Government to continue to provide information on the measures taken in this regard, as well as the number of children who have benefited from such measures, to the extent possible disaggregated by gender and age.