Italian envoy vows to make migration from Bangladesh 'safer, orderly'

Italian Ambassador to Bangladesh Ambassador Antonio Alessandro has said visa applications accompanied by fake documents and illegal practices like paying hefty amounts of money to middlemen are among the reasons that create problems in making smooth migration from Bangladesh to Italy.

"We are determined and committed. The embassy and our authorities back in Rome are committed to make the migration from Bangladesh to Italy safer and orderly," he said in an interview with three media outlets including UNB at the embassy.

The ambassador encouraged everyone to entrust only 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," he said.

He said applicants should only do this processing through official agencies.

The Bangladeshi community living in Italy, the largest in the EU, is a strong pull factor in attracting more migrants there. 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 the visa process gets delayed, Ambassador Alessandro said they estimate that one in five applications is accompanied by a problematic and irregular document.

"There is a practice of paying middlemen a very high amount of money to organise the migration process to Italy. This is an illegal practice, actually both in Italy and in Bangladesh," he said.

The ambassador said in many cases migrants paid this money and they do not even know where the money is going what kind of work they are going to do and for which company they are going to be employed.

"So, this practice must stop. And this is the main reason [for the slow visa process]. And this is the main reason why our migration from Bangladesh to Italy is having problems," said the Italian envoy.

He said work visa is one category and there are other categories of visas -- tourist visa, business visa, study visa, family visa. Application in these categories are growing in large numbers.

"Our official agency for visa processing is VFS Global. They are the only one authorised to collect documents for visa applications," he said, adding that they have put a ceilling to the number of applications they can receive a day to deliver better service.

"Otherwise, we cannot process it. And that's why it's difficult to get an appointment because there is a ceiling. And of course, many people cannot enter into this within this ceiling," he added.

Under normal circumstances, the Italian visa system works with the passport and the applicant leaves the passport through the VFS Global. Then VFS Global brings this application and the passport to the Embassy.

Asked about the backlog of passports, he said it's difficult to give an answer on when they will be able to clean the entire backlog. "It's difficult because it depends on the problems that we find in each application."

There are at least 20,000 passports in the embassy but probably more because outside the embassy, many applicants are waiting for an appointment.