Reza Mahmud :
A good number of Bangladeshi people migrate to Italy every year to search for better economic opportunities.
Nevertheless, a huge number of those aspirants become victims of torturing, deaths or become undocumented migrants even after costing more than TK. 20 lakh to reach there.
The Italian government also got noticed and issued warnings about the matter which pushed the potential European labour market in risk.
Like many European countries, Italy has a relatively strong economy and offers job opportunities in various sectors such as agriculture, construction, and services while the country is facing huge labor shortages in certain sectors, leading employers to look for foreign workers to fill these gaps.
Bangladeshi immigrants often take up jobs that Italians may not be willing to do, such as agricultural work or low-skilled jobs in the service industry.
Besides, Italy has agreed to take skilled workers from Bangladesh under a bilateral migration and mobility arrangement, particularly for Italian construction, shipbuilding and hospitality sectors.
This was revealed at the first ever Political Consultations between Bangladesh and Italy held in Rome in June7, last year.
About wages, a newcomer migrant could get about 800 Euro in Italy which is more than Tk 95 thousand. The skilled one could earn 4492 Euro which is more than Tk five lakh.
More than 1.5 lakh Bangladeshis are now living in Italy. Bangladeshi migrants send about 15 pc of total remittances produced from Italy.
In these contexts, huge numbers of Bangladeshi people try to enter Italy to get a better life.
Sources said, about five thousand people try to reach Italy every year while many of them die in sea after boat capsizing and other accidents. About three thousand Bangladeshi migrants were able to reach Italy.
Stakeholders said, every aspirant charged about 15 to 20 lakh taka for getting an Italian visa while the other cost also more several lakh taka including airfare.
Approximately, the aspirants cost about 25 to 30 lakh taka for going to Italy while it is needed for a total of about 10 to 15 lakh taka including all costs in legal private management migration and Tk five to seven lakh in government facilitating ways.
The aspirants said, in many cases, miscreants take them hostages in countries like Lydia while trying to ride boats to cross the sea. After torturing, they demand lakhs of taka as ransom for getting them free.
When contacted, Shariful Hasan, Associate Director of BRAC’s Migration and Youth Initiatives told The New Nation on Tuesday, “A good number of Bangladeshi aspirant people, mostly youth, want to go Italy, abused by the human traffickers and a group of agents from various recruiting agencies.”
“In most cases the agents make them compelled to go with boats crossing the sea keeping their lives in their hands. Many of them died in the sea by capsizing boats. It is unacceptable but has become a regular occurrence,” the expert said.
He also focused on the incidents of taking some migrants as hostages in the coastal areas of Libya and urged the government to take strict actions against the culprits in the country.
Many of the Bangladeshi Diasporas in Italy said Italian employers and governments want to hire only skilled manpower from abroad but dishonest agents are sending unskilled manpower from Bangladesh.
As a result, huge numbers of them become jobless after reaching the country overcoming mounts of obstacles.
Numbers of them flee from their legal shelters of the country and become undocumented.
Those illegal migrants used to spread to other European countries in many ways. Many of them try to stay in Italy by doing odd and unskilled laborers’ jobs.
The local authority frequently conducts drives against those illegally staying migrants.
Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has alleged ‘criminal gangs’ behind exploiting Italy’s visa system to traffic illegal Bangladeshi immigrants into the country.
The prime minister issued an official notification highlighting the need to curb the smuggling of illegal immigrants in a cabinet meeting recently.
When contacted, Muhammad Abul Bashar, President of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) told The New Nation, “BAIRA members are not involved in human trafficking anywhere.”