The "Invisible Children": Uncertain Future of Unaccompanied Minor Migrants in Europe.

Abstract

Because of their particular helpless condition, the unaccompanied minor migrants are at serious risk to be further deprived of their rights, and to become de facto “invisible” to the authorities, to the public health services, and in general to the public opinion. Furthermore, when they arrive at a destination, or during their journey through Europe, many children often vanish. The full dimension of such phenomenon that further hits the unaccompanied minors along their European migration routes currently is unknown. However, the intense migration that has affected the south Mediterranean borders of the EU over the last 10 years has allowed the collection of sufficient data to raise the high concern of several European pediatric societies about the “invisible” condition of the unaccompanied migrant minors traveling through Europe, including the phenomenon of the vanishing children. The aim of this article is to raise awareness of the “invisible children,” particularly in those countries that only recently have experienced a mass migration of populations from different endangered parts of the world.