Committed to making migration from BD safer: Italian envoy

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FE Team | Published: June 07, 2024 23:50:21

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Italian Ambassador to Bangladesh Ambassador Antonio Alessandro has said visa applications accompanied by fake documents and illegal practice of paying hefty amount of money to middlemen are among the reasons that create problem in making smooth migration from Bangladesh to Italy, reports UNB.
"We are determined and committed. The Embassy and our authorities back in Rome, we are committed to make the migration from Bangladesh to Italy increasingly safer and orderly," he said in an interview with three media outlets including UNB at the embassy.
The ambassador encouraged everyone to entrust only the reliable partners and migrants and workers should make sure that where they are going to work, which kind of job, under which conditions and in which city in Italy. "This is very important"
The Bangladeshi community living in Italy, the largest in the EU, is a strong pull factor in this regard. It contributes significantly to the well-being of Italy and is also an important source of remittances for Bangladesh with 1.2 billion euros transferred in 2022. Explaining reasons why visa process gets delayed, Ambassador Alessandro said their estimate is that one in five applications is accompanied by a problematic and irregular document.
"There is a practice of paying middlemen very high amount of money to organize the transfer to Italy. This is an illegal practice, actually both in Italy and in Bangladesh," he said.
Responding to question from UNB, the ambassador said in many cases migrants paid this money and they do not even know where the money is going and what kind of work they are going to do and for which company they are going to be employed.