About 250,000 people of Bangladeshi citizenship or origin live in Italy — the largest Bangladeshi community in the European Union. Italy’s Ambassador in Dhaka, Antonio Alessandro, made the point in an interview with the daily Kaler Kantho published in September.
Visas
- Work: about 10,000 visas in 2025 and a similar number expected in 2026. New authorisations are processed relatively quickly, with few rejections.
- Family: 12,000–13,000 family reunification visas a year.
- Study: about 500 visas in 2025, with an increase expected but kept “manageable” because university places are limited.
Old authorisations suspended under the October 2024 law were re-examined and many were rejected. The rejection rate is higher for short-stay Schengen visas, which the ambassador attributes to fake or forged documents. “Not everyone can go to Italy,” he said: the number of legal entries each year is limited.
Economy
Bilateral trade is worth about €2 billion a year: Italy buys Bangladeshi garments and other goods and sells industrial machinery and ceramics. Italy accounts for about 5% of the remittances Bangladesh receives, around US$1.7 billion last year. A new Bangladesh–Italy Chamber of Commerce and Industry is being launched.
