The government’s efforts to limit entry continue irregular migrants in Italy. The Interior Minister participated in a meeting with his counterparts in the Mediterranean in recent days. From the summit, which was held in the Canary Islands, some data emerged on which to work to combat the phenomenon of human trafficking. Thanks to agreements with North African countries, the government is managing to reduce the flow on the Mediterranean route and, thanks to the suspension of Schengen, the numbers on the Balkan route are also decreasing. But there is a new phenomenon that is advancing and that is starting to worry the executive, namely the flow from the East and, in particular, from Bangladesh.
We are witnessing a notable increase in immigrant arrivals from this small South-East Asian country, which counts beyond 170 million inhabitants and the highest population density on the planet, with over 1200 people per square kilometre. “Economic migrants arrive from that country and exploit them tourist visas obtained towards some Transit countries. We are working with the latter to put a stop to these dynamics“, explained Minister Piantedosi to the messenger. The movement from Bangladesh to Italy takes advantage of the ease of obtaining permits issued to some North African or Middle Eastern countries.
Specifically, as documented by Il Giornale a year ago, it is possible to easily reach Libya from Bangladesh: the entry visa is easy to obtain and there are numerous air connections, direct or with stopovers in the countries of the Arabian peninsula, in particular to Dubai. Once you reach the Libyasome continue on their journey towards Tunisia, others stop and leave from here on boats towards Italy. The documents are often eliminated to avoid easy recognition and once they arrive in Italy the process begins asylum seekers. But, since they are economic migrants, they rarely obtain regularization in Italy and are faced with expulsion orders, which are almost never complied with.
There are more and more numerous boats which start from Libya and which have a predominantly Bangladeshi composition. From the perspective of the agreements that the Italian government is strengthening with Libya and Tunisia first and foremost, which are the two main transit countries, solutions are also being sought to increase controls on entry visas. Increasing i filters on checks for those entering Libya and Tunisia from South-East Asian countries, the pool of possible irregular migrants who end up in the plots of organized crime and traffickers is reduced.
A further piece that contributes to the objective of slowing down and, in the future, stopping the departures of death boats across the Mediterranean.
