There is a black hole in Italy that swallows tens of thousands of minors every year. According to a report by the Extraordinary Commissioner for Missing Persons, 29,315 people “disappeared” in 2023, according to Avvenire.it, as cited by Rador Radio Romania.

Approximately 21,951 reports of disappearances (75%) involved persons under the age of 18, and 17,535 of these involved foreign children and adolescents. A significant increase compared to 2022, when 13,000 disappearances were reported. This phenomenon has increased in recent years, coinciding with an increase in the number of landings (since 2015) and significantly exceeding the number of Italian minors considered missing.

Later, many were found: 5723 alive, 2, unfortunately, died. However, 11,810 young people who arrived in Italy unaccompanied remain missing and no one knows their whereabouts.

In 91% of cases, these are boys. Many are fleeing reception centers and leaving Italy to join family and friends in France or northern Europe. The majority are 17-year-olds (6146 subjects) who spontaneously move away from guardians or families.

A mystery that no one has yet been able to solve

Many lose track of them and end up hiding: they work illegally with the complicity of some compatriots, and then send money to their families who remained in their country of origin.

Like, for example, the Egyptians: the flow, which has increased in the last two years, is directed mainly to Lombardy and other cities of the rich north. They land in Sicily or end up in Italy after traveling the Balkan route, after months of traveling amid violence and deprivation.

As soon as they arrive in Italy, they are “prepared” to report to police stations and barracks to be taken care of by the local municipal services. After that, many disappear and start their life path, not always within the limits of legality. This is exactly the problem: the army of lost children is afraid to join the ranks of the criminal world or, even worse, to become a victim of sex trafficking.

Some investigative sources whisper that there is also a danger of organ trafficking, but there is no evidence of this. Officially, only 25 young foreigners among those who disappeared in 2023 could become victims of a crime.

But what happens to all the others is a mystery that no one has yet been able to solve. Except for those who for some reason, perhaps bureaucratic, avoided the statistics, the numbers document a scenario that leaves open uncomfortable questions.

Disappeared foreign minors mainly from Tunisia (3,362), Egypt (2,861) and Guinea (2,589). It is followed by Ivory Coast (1,572) and Afghanistan (1,106). Different origins, with one common denominator: very poor countries, where the life of a child or teenager can be expensive.