Another 35 Bangladeshis Sent Back from Three European Countries, Italy Issues Stern Warning on Irregular Migration

Another 35 Bangladeshis have been sent back home from three European countries. Among them, 19 came from Italy, 10 from Greece and six from Cyprus. They arrived at Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on a special chartered flight at around 8:15am on Friday.

According to airport sources and immigration police, the flight number was PVG 9445. Italy's embassy in Dhaka said the repatriation flight was operated under the management of Frontex, the European Union's border management agency.

BRAC's migration programme gave the returnees emergency assistance, counselling and financial support to travel home at the airport. Civil Aviation Security and the expatriates' welfare desk assisted in the work. Representatives of the foreign ministry and the European Union were also present at the time.

The assistance was provided under the 'Protyasha-2' project, jointly funded by the European Union and BRAC. There are also plans to give them economic support after counselling and training, so that they can start life anew.

BRAC Associate Director Shariful Hasan said that among Bangladeshis who have returned from Europe in recent years, significant numbers have come from Italy, Greece and Germany. Returnees are given emergency assistance and counselling at the airport. Later they are given economic support so they can start life afresh.

He added that awareness campaigns are being run across the country to discourage people from taking risky irregular routes to Europe. At the same time, European countries are also taking initiatives to recruit workers from Bangladesh through legal channels — meaning efforts to open legal pathways are continuing alongside pressure to close irregular ones.

Related sources said that in 2017 the Bangladesh government signed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) agreement with European countries on returning Bangladeshis staying irregularly in Europe. Under it, around five thousand Bangladeshis have so far returned home. Significant numbers of them returned from Cyprus, Italy, Romania and France.

On the same day, Italy issued a stern message on irregular migration. Italy's embassy in Dhaka said on Friday that Europe supports safe, orderly and legal migration. Europe follows a zero-tolerance policy towards irregular arrival and irregular stay.

The embassy further said that paying traffickers, brokers and smugglers to go to Italy without a proper visa is illegal, and doing so will result in repatriation from, and a ban on entering, Schengen countries. In other words, paying brokers to take an irregular route carries both the risk of being sent back and of being banned in future.

Friday's flight was the practical form of that policy — 35 people were sent back together from three countries under Frontex management. Although support was arranged for the returnees at the airport itself, they now face the hard challenge of starting life over again.

BRAC has said it will stand beside them in facing that challenge through counselling, training and economic support under the Protyasha-2 project. The awareness campaigns have the same aim — so that no one else steps onto a risky irregular path.

Attention will now be on the rehabilitation process for the 35 returnees — how far they can turn their lives around with economic support after counselling and training, and at the same time how far European countries' initiatives to recruit workers through legal channels progress.