The government of Italy has turned down a request from Bangladesh to withdraw restrictions on entry of its expatriates into that country until December 31.
Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said this on Monday.
Responding to a query from The Financial Express, Abdul Momen said that the ministry communicated with Italian authorities of different levels in this regard but the Italian government refused to reconsider the decision.
According to the minister, Bangladeshi expatriates are largely responsible for this situation as, he said, they had frequently violated the quarantine rules introduced by the Italian government.
“Firstly, a good number of Bangladeshis were found corona positive when they were allowed to go back to Italy a few months ago. When they were put on quarantine by the Italian authorities, many of them skipped the quarantine,” the minister said.
“Secondly, when the Italian government asked for mandatory Covid-19 tests for all Bangladeshi expatriates in a city near Rome, many Bangladeshis left the city to avoid the procedure.”
These incidents were highlighted by the local media there and then apparently under pressure the authorities were compelled to impose the restrictions, he added.
However, the minister said, Italy has agreed to a Bangladesh proposal for recruiting labourers for agriculture sector.
“They (Italians) used to allow such labourers previously but later it was found that many of them did not return to Bangladesh on completion of their contracts. Then they stopped the recruitment.”
“Now they have agreed to our proposal to resume the recruitment when we assured them that our workers will return to the country after the end of their contracts there,” Dr Momen said.
He mentioned that recently some Bangladeshi workers were not allowed to enter Dubai as they did not have sponsorships from the employers.
