20
May
2026
Watch
Recruitment of children by organised crime (debate)
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the recruitment of children by criminal organisations is no longer a marginal phenomenon, it is a well-established and constantly evolving strategy. This is demonstrated by what happened today in Florence, where a 15-year-old Tunisian was arrested on charges of international terrorism after online contacts with Daesh-related circles. This is the confirmation of a paradigm shift: There is no longer only recruitment in the neighborhood, today a smartphone is enough. Criminal organizations enter social networks, encrypted chats, online video games. A boy is no longer approached, he is profiled, contacted and enlisted. The mechanism is always the same: First the promise of easy money, then identity, then belonging. This is how criminal loyalty is built. For this reason, the response must be European, immediate and concrete. Because, today, what is at stake is not only safety: Determining whether a teenager's first click will take him to his future or into a criminal network becomes almost impossible.