An analysis based on the latest data provided by the European Statistics Office (Eurostat), published on the website of the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, reports that in relation to this problem, Italy has an upward trend of 28 percent and is the fourth worst country at the regional level.

The study shows that Italy displaced Greece from that position, as the situation of minors in the latter has improved, and is only surpassed by Romania, Bulgaria, and Spain, which have 41.5, 33.9 and 32.2 percent, respectively.

Paolo Rozera, director general of the Italian Office of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said recently that “the situation of children and young people is even worse than in 1946,” during the post-war period.

“There are 1.4 million young people living in absolute poverty in Italy,” said Rozera, who added that “adults always find more sophisticated ways to harm minors,” so “there is a lot of work to do.”

According to UNICEF data, poverty hits in particular unaccompanied minor migrants, about 11,600 of whom crossed the central Mediterranean Sea to reach Italy between January and mid-September 2023, accounting for an increase of 60 percent over the same period last year.

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