Lured by smugglers, Mohammad Jahir came to Greece from Bangladesh four years ago to work at a factory. He ended up as a poorly paid day laborer and still has no legal documents.
InfoMigrants' recent interview with the Greek migration minister, Notis Mitarachi, about a 5-year seasonal worker visa scheme for Bangladeshi nationals prompted a lot of questions about working in Greece. Here are some answers.
Bailey Begum from Bangladesh works as a street food vendor in Athens. She has been living in Greece for four years without documents. Now she's hoping for a change: the Greek government announced it wants to regularize thousands of undocumented Bangladeshi migrants already working in Greece.
Bangladesh has taken in over a million Rohingya after they were forced out of Myanmar. Now, the Bangladeshi government is pressuring the EU to help repatriate them.
The Greek minister for migration and asylum, Notis Mitarachi, tells InfoMigrants that a scheme to offer seasonal worker visas to thousands of Bangladeshis will start this fall. Some migrants are critical of the plan, saying it offers no long-term security.
Dozens of Bangladeshi migrants have been arrested in Romania recently while trying to cross its border illegally, or for not joining their workplaces. Experts think human smugglers are luring migrants to move to Italy, promising them better income opportunities.
To meet its demands in the construction sector, Balkan state Bosnia and Herzegovina has started recruiting migrant workers from Bangladesh. Many are going with the hopes of earning enough to send money back to their families.
A Bangladeshi man has died trying to reach France from Greece via the 'Balkan route'. Human smugglers reportedly left the deceased man's body in a hilly area near the Albania-Montenegro border.
UNICEF and IOM (International Organization for Migration) launched new migrant child protection guidelines to safeguard them from climate change. In 2020 approximately 10 million children became displaced due to meteorological-induced shocks, the agencies said.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought international migration to a standstill — and migrant workers have borne the greatest cost. But Bangladeshi workers are doing surprisingly well.
Bangladeshi migrant B. Khandakar traveled to Europe to find work and support his family. What he found instead was misery, debt and a tragic death.
Sayem, a Bangladeshi migrant in Bosnia and Herzegovina, told InfoMigrants that he was mistreated by Croatian border police. Investigative outlets have documented many similar testimonies in recent years.