Alone on the boats - WHY so many migrant CHILDREN arrive ALONE to the Italian shores?

INTRODUCTION

This series of articles will focus on the thousands of unaccompanied minor immigrants arriving in Italy each year. A first look at the numbers will give us an idea of the vast proportions of the phenomenon. Later, we will try to understand who these young people are and which unbearable situations forced them to leave their homes to undertake a journey that killed more than 700 kids in 2016, only in its last part, the crossing of the Mediterranean sea. We will follow the young migrants along the steps of their journey towards a better future and we will witness the life and death choices they are forced to make and the terrible risks they faced. Finally, we will have a look at what Italy and Europe are doing to protect the minors. Is that sufficient? How can we grant safeguard and well-being, which are unalienable rights of childhood? Does the recently passed Law n° 47 with dispositions about unaccompanied minor immigrants fulfil the need for effective measures to deal with the phenomenon of child immigration?