Services 116000
In Italia, nel 2008 l’Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni ha reso disponibile e considerato riservato per l’uso da parte del Ministero dell’Interno, anche avvalendosi di soggetto esterno, il “116000 – Linea telefonica diretta per i minori scomparsi”. Dal 25 maggio 2009 – giornata internazionale dei bambini scomparsi – il 116.000 è attivo nel nostro Paese e gestito da Telefono Azzurro, a seguito della firma di un Protocollo di Intesa con il Ministero dell’Interno che ne ha determinato l’affidamento diretto all’Associazione, che si è impegnata a mettere in campo risorse proprie per la gestione del progetto.
Il 116.000 gestito da Telefono Azzurro è un servizio gratuito e raggiungibile da telefonia fissa e mobile di tutta Italia. Il suo compito è quello di rispondere 24h su 24 alle segnalazioni provenienti dal territorio nazionale relativamente a situazioni di scomparsa di minori e supportare le indagini delle autorità competenti attraverso accordi e procedure operative che Telefono Azzurro ha definito e condiviso con le Forze di Polizia.
Una volta raccolte le informazioni necessarie, una banca dati con l’indicazione delle Forze di Polizia competenti territorialmente consente di inoltrare tempestivamente le segnalazioni ricevute ai nodi competenti a livello locale della Polizia di Stato e dell’Arma dei Carabinieri attraverso un contatto telefonico e un messaggio di posta elettronica che parte in automatico dopo la compilazione della scheda informatizzata di raccolta dati. Il Servizio 116.000 nasce anche con l’obiettivo di creare una rete di intervento sinergica fra i diversi servizi negli Stati Membri al fine di agevolare le possibilità di intervento e il ritrovamento dei bambini scomparsi: per questo motivo le segnalazioni riguardanti Paesi in cui è già attivo il 116.000, vengono immediatamente inoltrate alle rispettive hotline.
Un’azione immediata risulta fondamentale: come mostrano le ricerche, infatti, quanto più è tempestivo l’avvio delle ricerche, tanto più è possibile un esito positivo, poiché le prime ore dopo la scomparsa sono di vitale importanza.
Services 116000 – Direct line for missing children
The European Commission (Decisions No. 116 and No. 698 of 15th of February and 29th of October 2007) has earmarked the arc numbering starting with 116 for information services of social value.
In 2008, the National Regolamentary Authority made it available and considered the”116000 – Direct Phone Line for missing children” as reserved for use by the Ministry of the Interior, also by using an external service.
At the moment, 116000 is operational in Belgium, France, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, countries with which Telefono Azzurro has been working for years in an attempt to build a Europe-wide best practices and facilitate the procedures for the exchange of increasingly effective in countering the disappearance of children and adolescents in Italy and abroad. From 25 May 2009 Line 116000 is operational also in Italy and is managed by Telefono Azzurro, thanks to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Interior, which will determine the direct assignment to the Association which is committed to manage it with own funds.
The choice of this assignment is born because of the competences gained from Telefono Azzurro in the management since 2004 of “114 Emergency Childhood” on behalf of the Government, the competent public service that handles 24 hours per day with all situations of danger and emergencies involving children and adolescents on national territory and the collaboration with the Ministry of Interior aimed at sharing good practices and procedures. The Association is also part of the network Missing Children Europe – the European Federation for Missing and since Sexually Exploited Children representing 23 NGOs active in 16 European Union countries – in order to manage situations often complex as those regarding children involved in parental abductions.
116000 is a service dedicated to anyone who wishes to report the disappearance, the sighting or the discovery of an Italian or Foreign child or adolescent. The concept of “disappearance” includes all those situations where you lose track of a child or a teenager, do not know the exact location where a child is found and / or the circumstances in which this disappearance took place. Children who disappear are those who are lost, being kidnapped, who are abducted from one of the parents, Italian of Foreigners children who voluntarily depart from home or an institution.
The task of 116000 is to respond to 24 hours per day reports from the national territory with regard to situations of disappearance of children and to support the investigation of the competent authorities through agreements and procedures that Telefono Azzurro has defined with the Police. The Service is organized in a center located at Telefono Azzurro Palermo Office with dedicated and properly trained operators to handle these reports, along with volunteers from the civil service. The service is equipped with operational tools shared with the Police. In the months preceding the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, as explicitly stated in (Article 7), was activated a working group at the Department of Public Safety, Office of Coordination and Planning of Police Forces aimed at sharing procedures and define the ways of intervention required to manage in the context of reports of disappearance. The working group brought together representatives of the Ministry of Interior (Department of Public Security and Civil Liberties and Immigration), Telefono Azzurro, Carabinieri, Extraordinary Commission for Missing Persons and Telecom which has treated computerization of the system.
The operational tools that will use the operators of 116,000, to collect information and forward it to the police forces, are three: a computer card for collecting data, a database and operating procedures.
1. A summary of computerized data collection is an essential tool for the operator of the 116000 to organize the information collected during the phone call that will be made – according to specific operating procedures – the territorially competent Police. The information is gathered into four sections:
Table 1. Sections of the data collection
Sections of the data collection
Section 1 – TYPE OF DISAPPEARENCE
• Unspecified disappearence of a minor
• Voluntary or Forced depart from home/institute
• Parental Abduction (National/International)
• Rapimento di Minore
Setion 2 – SIGHTING
Section 3 – FINDING
Section 4 – UPDATE AND FOLLOW UP
2. The database. The department has organized a database, complete with contact details (telephone, fax and email) of all Police (Polizia di Stato and Arma dei Carabinieri) present at national level competent for the management of reporting received by 116000. Specifically, the database will indicate, for the State Police, all the operations rooms of Commissariats PS and Police on the national territory, while, as regards the Arma dei Carabinieri, all Operative Offices and Provincial Commands.
3. Operational procedures. As provided in the Memorandum of Understanding between Telefono Azzurro and the Ministry of the Interior, they have been shared and agreed with the Police Force under an intense operational work. The procedures are an essential tool for the operator of 116000 as the lead in reporting to the competent Police at the local level. The procedures are meeting the five most frequent types of disappearence, giving indications even in the warning and / or finding (Table 2).
Table 2. Operational Procedures
116000 Operational Procedures
• O.P. n. 1 Disappearence/Sighting/Finding of a Missing Minor
• O.P. n. 2 Departure from Home/Volunteer or Forced Departure
• O.P. n. 3 Abduction
• O.P. n. 4 International Abduction
• O.P. n. 5 Kidnap
? Annex 1 – Guidelines for the information collection aimed at reporting situations of missing children
? Annex 2 – Countries parts of Hague Convention
? Annex 3 – Map of countries with 116000
In general, for all types of records, the operational steps that the operator of the 116000 will have to follow are:
A) Recollect the information required to define the situation reported by the caller entering data into the data sheet. This initial assessment phase is crucial to apply the appropriate procedure for reporting to the police forces.
B) shows the disappearance, sightings, the discovery of a child to the police forces with local time, through telephone contact;
C) send an E-MAIL to the email address specifically for the area / department of expertise.
D) Only in case of problems in sending an e-mail (for example, the presence of a fault): send a fax to specific area / department of expertise.
The operational manual of 116000, which includes both the operating procedures and the Service is the contact for the collection of information necessary for the management of records of disappearence, born thanks to the experience acquired by Telefono Azzurro with the management of the 114 Emergency Services and International Confront ( in reference to the information contained in the Guidelines of the Association of Public-Safety Communication Officials-International and classifications proposed by Missing Children Europe).
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