Italy: 46 new tutors for unaccompanied foreign minors in Tuscany

Rome: Tuscany can count on 46 new voluntary tutors for unaccompanied foreign minors who received a certificate, at the Regional Council in Florence after successfully completing a specific training course.

Tuscany has 46 new voluntary tutors for unaccompanied foreign minors. The new tutors attended a specific training course organized by the ombudsman for children and adolescents in the central Italian region, Camilla Bianchi, and passed the final selection of the 2024 edition of the program.

The certificates were awarded on October 22 at the Regional Council of Tuscany by Bianchi at a ceremony attended by the president of the legislative assembly, Antonio Mazzeo.

The new tutors confirmed they were willing to be included in specific lists drafted by the juvenile courts of Florence and Genoa, in Liguria, which has jurisdiction over the Tuscan province of Massa Carrara.

According to monthly data provided by the ministry of labour and social policies, as of September 30 this year, Tuscany was hosting 834 unaccompanied minors from Egypt, Ukraine, Gambia and Tunisia.

“The voluntary tutors of unaccompanied foreign minors are citizens who will be providing a free service within the system of hosting and integration of foreign minors,” said Tuscany’s ombudsman for children and adolescents.

The president of Florence’s juvenile court, Silvia Chiarantini, stressed how “Tuscany has registered an increase in arrivals from North Africa while those from countries in the East, Albania and Sub-Sharan Africa have decreased”.

The interim president of the juvenile court of Genoa, Daniela Verrina, told the new tutors that, “with your proximity and with your example as the relevant adults you can be a valid antidote to discriminatory behavior to which these minors will unfortunately be exposed.”

“We are here to say thank you to these women and men who voluntarily decide to dedicate part of their time to unaccompanied foreign minors, contributing to creating a culture of hosting”, said the president of Tuscany’s Regional Council.