Italian Ambassador to Bangladesh Ambassador Antonio Alessandro has said his country is looking for a broader cooperation with Bangladesh in the energy sector and they are very closely following the bidding for the international oil and gas companies to explore in the Bay of Bengal.

"Bangladesh has launched an international tender for exploration of gas and this is an important development. Many global companies are looking at this tender," he said in an interview with three media outlets including UNB at the embassy last week.

Ambassador Alessandro said Italian Eni, which is the major multinational Italian company working in the oil and gas sector, is also monitoring this tender.

"There is still time ahead to consider bidding for the Italian company and for other companies. So, this is an important development," he said.

Petrobangla, Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation, has floated the offshore bidding, inviting international oil and gas companies to explore in the Bangladesh maritime area in the Bay of Bengal.

The tender, named "Oil and Natural Gas Exploration Under Bangladesh Offshore Bidding Round 2024", was published recently giving six months' time until September 9, 2024 for submission of the bids.

As per the floated tender, a total of 24 offshore blocks - of which nine are shallow blocks - and 15 deep sea blocks are available for the bidding round.

Responding to a question from UNB, the ambassador said the energy sector in Bangladesh is very important and it is a big challenge for Bangladesh to find the sources of energy for its development and also to make the energy system more sustainable moving towards renewable.

He said Bangladesh and Italy signed two MoUs, including one on the energy sector, in July last year when Prime Minister Hasina visited Rome.

"Now we need to implement this agreement and cooperate more in the energy sector. And LNG is one of the areas. And renewable - also energy from waste to energy projects - this is another important area where Italian companies are quite developed and there are many opportunities in Bangladesh," said the envoy, adding that liquefied natural gas (LNG) is one area within a broader context.

A Much Stronger Bangladesh

Ambassador Alessandro said the relations between Bangladesh and Italy are growing and which are now multifaceted. "They are growing because both countries are evolving. Bangladesh is not anymore an LDC and is quite a much stronger country with developing in many areas, presenting many opportunities for Italian business people."

He said Italy also, at the same time, is growing his role within the European Union and globally. "So, the two countries relations are growing also because of this bridge represented by the Bangladeshi community in Italy, which acts as a bridge between the two countries, and the community is also growing in numbers and in quality.

Explaining why the relations are multifaceted, Alessandro said if they look at the relations 30 years ago, maybe it was just development, humanitarian aid and some basic trade.

"Now our relations are more diverse. And there is trade, migration, defense and culture. So the spectrum of what we can do together is much broader, and I see a lot of potential in our relations," he said.

The ambassador said there is untapped potentials, meaning that the two countries have a lot to give each other and so far, this has not been expressed fully. "So, there is more than we can do together."

The ambassador said Bangladesh Armed Forces are quite developed and very effective, and this is demonstrated by the fact that the Bangladesh is the first largest troop contributor to the UN peacekeeping system.

"So to maintain these, they need cooperation by other countries. Italy is proud to have been one of the countries that have cooperated with Bangladesh in this in this area, and we maintain very good relations with the Armed Forces of Bangladesh, Air Force, Navy, Army, Coast Guard, police," he said.

Alessandro said they are very happy to continue to work with Bangladesh and there are many forms of cooperation, not just buying arms. "Buying arms is a bit of a simplistic way of putting that. So, the cooperation is broader."

Responding to a question, he said Secretary General (equivalent to Foreign Secretary) at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is coming from Rome at the end of June for political consultations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh.

He said the director for Italian Citizens Abroad will also visit on July 1 as every year they have a commemoration of the Holey Artisan Bakery terrorist attack that happened on first July, 2016.

"Every year there is a ceremony to remember the victims of that attack. So, the director is coming. These are the short term visits. Then we will consider, of course, additional visits," he added.

Regarding resumption of Biman Bangladesh Airlines' direct flights to Italy's Rome, he said they welcome this direct air connectivity.

"I attended the launching ceremony of this new flight. It is a very good development in the Italy-Bangladesh relations," he said.

Ambassador Alessandro said opening up new routes and new flights depends on the demand. "So we should see the demand in the market and understand if there is space for more flights like that by demand or by eta airways.

One in five applications accompanied by problematic documents

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

"We are determined and committed. The Embassy and our authorities back in Rome, we are committed to make the migration from Bangladesh to Italy increasingly safer and orderly," he said.

The ambassador encouraged everyone to entrust only the 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"

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

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

Responding to question from UNB, the ambassador said in many cases migrants paid this money and they do not even know where the money is going and 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 our slow process. And this is the main reasons why our migration from Bangladesh to Italy is having problem," said the Italian envoy.

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

The community of Bangladesh in Italy becomes larger and becomes more integrated and so attracts a number of people for family reunion, business tourism or family visits, he said.

"All this is putting significant pressure on our embassy, and that explains the delay, because work visa is important, but also these other categories are also important, and our visa office has to work for all categories. So, I recognize that there are delays, and of course, we apologize to the public for this delay," said the envoy.

He, however, said applicants should be careful when they entrust their money to someone to organise their migration and they should only refer to official agencies and should refuse to pay this large amount of money to middlemen and brokers.

"Our official agency for visa processing is VFS Global. They are the only one authorised to collect documents for visa applications and there has been a lot of talking, for example, about the difficulty of getting an appointment that is not VFS's fault, Alessandro said, adding that they have put a ceiling on the number of applications that they can accept every day.

"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.

"Now we are not keeping the passport anymore. This is a waiver that our headquarters has authorised for Bangladesh. So, applicants for working visa now only leave photocopy of the passport. They keep the passport with them so that they can travel and use the passport for other purposes. We are considering now what to do with the passports that we have at the embassy at the moment," he said.

The ambassador said the embassy is determined to clean the backlog and give an answer to all applicants.

"I also want to say that the entry to Italy imply for a working migrant, implies four steps. One is the sponsorship by a company. Second, one is the working permit, visa by the embassy, and finally, the entry at the border and the immigration control at the border," he said.

Ambassador Alessandro said people who have done the two steps with sponsorship and working permit they cannot be sure that they will go to Italy.

"In fact, they, many of them are rejected because the sponsorship is fake, the working permit is counterfeited and for many other reasons. So until the completion of four steps they are not sure of being admitted to Italy," he said.

The ambassador said Bangladesh community in Italy is increasingly well integrated. "I am happy to say and to recognise that cases of explorations are limited and that your community successfully integrated."

He stressed that the community of Bangladeshi people in Italy is a proper community because people, after a while, can bring along their families and they establish themselves permanently.

"All this makes this community successful. Many entrepreneurs and young generations were born in Italy. So it's a very successful community, and we should continue to promote this and make sure that the illegality stays away."

The ambassador said the network of criminals exists and they should counter them and avoid illegal flows of migrations.

Asked about 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, there are many applicants waiting for an appointment.

The ambassador said they have taken some measures and one is to acquire new space which will be a larger space, more functional for the visa office and the same for VFS Global. "VFS also moved to a new facility, new visa application center, much larger and more functional and comfortable for applicants."

Second measure is that they have recruited the two local staff recently and some additional staff from the headquarters will be added, Alessandro said, adding that "It will take some time, but we hope to receive more human resources in the days to come."

He said they had a delegation from the headquarters recently to assess the situation and study options for helping the embassy in dealing with this backlog.