Bangladesh likely to face EU visa curbs
When the country is facing extreme difficulties in shipping goods to the European Union due to a ban on direct cargo flights, Bangladesh may face a fresh crisis of visa restriction for its nationals because of its delay in bringing back the Bangladeshis who are ineligible for asylum in Europe.
Diplomatic sources said the EU, the 28-nation European bloc, has already decided to restrict visas for foreign countries that refuse or are reluctant to take back their nationals who reached European shores across the Mediterranean since 2014.
Some countries, including Bangladesh and Nigeria, are often reluctant to readmit their citizens and the EU has recently doubled down on efforts to expedite such returns, said diplomats of EU countries in Dhaka.
The issue of visa restriction further worried Dhaka after the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Tuesday threatened to “limit visas” to Europe for travellers from Bangladesh if there was no action by Dhaka on irregular migrants.
In a letter to Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni on July 25, Juncker also promised to “pressure Bangladesh” to take back its migrants, since the “vast majority of them” have no right of asylum or international protection in Europe.
The European Commission has pledged to offer Italy a further €100m in funding to manage the migration crisis in the central Mediterranean, and threatened to impose visa restrictions on Bangladesh unless it speeds up the readmission of illegal immigrants from Italy, according to a news report of the British daily The Financial Times.
Though Bangladesh maintained its general position about bringing “all the people in irregular situation back”, European diplomats said Dhaka had been making long delay to conclude the negotiations on the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on the return of irregular migrants from the EU.
Following the Joint Commission meeting between the EU and Bangladesh on July 12 in Brussels, the EU warned Bangladesh to end the negotiations on the SOPs by the end of this month.
After the threat, an inter-ministerial meeting on Tuesday hurriedly finalised the SOPs agreeing to bring back all its irregular nationals through nationality verification within a “logical time.”
The Joint Commission meeting and subsequent European Commission President's warning apparently prompted the government to go for an immediate negotiation to resolve the issue.
The foreign ministry handed over the copy of the approved SOPs to EU Ambassador in Dhaka Pierre Mayaudon on July 25, expressing desire to conclude the negotiation soon.
Earlier, the joint commission meeting, the EU alleged that Bangladesh has long been making “unnecessary” delay in the name of nationality verification and asked to complete the verification within 48 hours. The Bangladesh side termed it absurd.
The responsibility of verification goes to the home ministry and there is common feeling among the line ministries that the law enforcing agencies took longer to verify the nationality.
Dhaka argued that nationality verification is a complex process as many Rohingyas from Myanmar have been found claiming to be Bangladeshis in different countries. Bangladesh is unwilling to take the responsibility of Myanmar nationals.
Bangladesh also highlighted the need for “widening the scope of safe, orderly and regular migration”.
Earlier, the EU submitted SOPs to Bangladesh government in June 2016 to expedite the return of the irregular migrants while Bangladesh submitted amendments of the draft SOPs on July 12 this year. The EU expressed its regret at the lack of progress on these negotiations.
Though the EU has not yet given any list or specific number of the irregular migrants, unofficial figure said the number could be up to 93,000.
According to the EU sources, the first 100 days of 2017 saw 4,645 Bangladeshis illegally arrive in Italy. Over the same period in 2016, there were only three Bangladeshis making the same trip.
In 2016, a record 8,131 Bangladeshis were registered by authorities at landing points in Italy, now the main gateway to the EU states.
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