Supporting a Night-Time Emergency Centre for Unaccompanied Migrant Minors in Transit in Rome, Italy
Project location: Italy, Rome
Project start date: December 2011 -
Project end date: This project covers various years
Project number: 2011-56
Beneficiary: INTERSOS
Given its critical peripheral location, the center INTERSOS24 faces one of the most complex social contexts of Rome and addresses its services to unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) and women alone and/or with children in transit, the foreign community, and the local community. The services implemented meet the following goals:
1. Respond to real needs through reception for UASC and women with children in transit or experiencing social exclusion; psychological support and free medical assistance;
2. Promote access to health on a transcultural level: INTERSOS24 is a place open to the neighborhood for events and projects that foster social interaction and inclusion, multicultural education and socio-sanitary education;
3. Data collection and analysis: Need assessment and field analysis, advocacy campaigns related to child protection and right to access healthcare;
Activities
Between May 2017 and December 2018 the following activities have been implemented:
Night Reception Activities for UASC and women alone and/or with children in transit consisting of: Food and Shelter; Hygiene Kit; First Aid Kit; Clothes; Internet; Orientation services; First medical screening (implemented either at arrival or the morning after); Psychosocial support and Basic legal orientation.
Daily Activities consisting of:
Acquainted Interviews with each beneficiary, aimed at carrying out a first assessment of beneficiaries' psycho-social needs and intentions.
Low threshold basic medical assistance, specialized gynecological and pediatrics assistance to center's guests and to the people of the neighborhood in social and/or economic difficulties. The beneficiaries receive first aid through clinical check-ups, orientation to the public healthcare services, improving their capacity to benefit from the public health system. INTERSOS24 works in coordination with the Local Health Authority Roma 2 (ASL RM2), and in joint effort with the Assessorato for Social Policy of the VI Municipality of Rome and other civil society associations.
Legal Orientation: relevant information is given on migrants' rights in Italy and Europe and on the main risks they can find along the route to Northern Europe. This is fundamental to boost UASC's protection, by enhancing their possibility to exercise their rights.
Psychological Counselling and Support through focus groups and/or individual consultations, aimed at improving the capacity of the beneficiaries to handle the difficulties they are going through.
Recreational Activities including photography workshops, carried out in September 2018 in partnership with "Festival della Letteratura di Viaggio" (Rome's travel literature festival); cooking classes; activities with school of the territory, to raise awareness about the topic of migration in general and the transit in particular; visits to the city center and to the Colosseum. The activities have involved both the center's guests and the local community.
Job Orientation service, that includes: analysis of personal skills and professional qualifications; support in CV writing; orientation to the employment centers of the territory.
Data collection and Analysis shared with key stakeholders in order to give them a picture of the needs assessed through INTERSOS' interventions.
Outreach Activities carried out by INTERSOS Mobile Team in train stations, occupied buildings, and other areas with high transit migrants' density. All unaccompanied minors and women alone or with children intercepted are referred to the Center. Team Mobile's weekly agenda contemplates fixed days of service in key-places previously spotted. The intervention is aimed at monitoring all key-places for young migrants in transit in Rome, and at providing direct assistance to minors on the street.
Results obtained based on activities
Night Reception Activities: Between May and September 2017, the A28 Center hosted 347 UASC, of which 292 were boys and 55 were girls. June and July were the months in which the highest presence of UASC in the Center was registered. The main countries of origin of the UASC hosted in the Center were Eritrea (219), Guinea (32), Somalia (14). In the period October-December, the Center INTERSOS 24 sheltered 47 UASC. They mostly originated from Eritrea (11), Sudan (6), Mali (6), Somalia (5). Since January 2018 until December 2018, 304 people have been received to the center of which 186 were males while 118 were female.
Acquainted interviews: Since May 2017 n. 651 interviews have been conducted in order to assess basic psychological needs and intentions of the beneficiaries.
Low thresholds medical assistance: data updated at December 31st 2018 account for n. 287 general medicine session conducted by our medical staff, n. 82 sessions of gynecological consultancies, n.45 pediatric consultancies and n. 216 sessions of socio-sanitary orientation.
Psychological counselling: data updated at December 31st 2018 account for n. 250 psychological consultancies
Recreational activities: Almost 80% of the people that have benefited from Intersos24 night reception services have participated to daytime recreational activities as cooking classes, photography sessions in the center of Rome and other activities in the territory.
Job Orientation: While the Job orientation activities started off in January 2019, since 2018 the centre Intersos24 has engaged in planning and structuring activities tailoring the service on beneficiaries skills and competencies, in expanding its network to possible pertinent partners and other stakeholders in order to ensure a structured scheduling of activities since the beginning of 2019.
Legal support: Almost 80% of the beneficiaries have received legal support focusing on individual needs based on beneficiaries legal status, more articulate legal cases have been referred to specific legal support agencies.
Outreach Activities: Since May 2017, the Mobile Team reached n.1141 UASC who dropped out from the formal system or never went through it, in the n. 5 areas monitored: Tiburtina Station, Tor Cervara area, Ostiense Station, Via Vannina and Ex Penicillina informal settlements. The Mobile Team also provided n. 2500 hotspot wi-fi connections.
Next steps and Expected Results
Although the Italian national healthcare system provides services, access to healthcare is still a significant issue for people of concern. As a consequence of the transformation of migration policies with the application of the L.132/18, the amount of people with difficulty to access healthcare is expected to increase progressively. The categories that are most significantly affected are people that live in unstable economic, social and housing condition. In support of vulnerable groups, the center Intersos24 will keep implementing its night reception services for UASC, young adults and women alone or with children, providing basic and specialized medical assistance, in coordination with the national healthcare system to improve access to national services; providing psychological support and strengthening its referral activities for particularly fragile cases from a legal and psychosocial perspective.
Besides, the legal support will be strengthened in order to raise awareness on migratory law in relation to the legal status of the beneficiary enhancing his/her capacity of self-determination.
The Mobile Team will extend its outreach activities, increasing its presence on the territory with specific focus on occupied buildings and informal settlements.
Furthermore, social inclusion and economic emancipation still represent the main gap in protection. Therefore, efforts will focus on improving the Job Orientation Service through consolidating our partners network in the private sector in order to provide professional trainings and work experiences for beneficiaries, drawing upon the relevance of their previous competencies.
