Bangladesh has signed an agreement with the European Union (EU) to bring back illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from Europe. So far, 150 Bangladeshis have come back after the agreement came into force. The government now wants to use this to send skilled Bangladeshis overseas and discussions have been held with the EU headquarters in Brussels.

'European countries were eager to work out such an agreement and we responded,' said a foreign office official.

“We have told them that we will take back illegal Bangladeshis but they should help us send skilled people legally,” commented the foreign ministry mandarin.

“There is a scarcity of skilled workers in Europe; for example, Switzerland gives 8000 work permits to skilled people every year; and recently, we had a discussion with them to take people from Bangladesh.”

“We have told them that if they can ensure their training then Bangladeshis can compete for jobs there,” said the official.

Bangladesh has also entered into such an agreement (Standard of Procedure) with Norway. Under the SoP, before sending back a Bangladeshi, all legal and administrative formalities need to be completed and a maximum of 100 persons can be sent back every month.

EU countries issued 26000 resident permits for Bangladeshis in 2014, 21000 in 2015, 25000 in 2016 but 4100 between January and June 2017.

As per EU information, till December 2016, around 200,000 Bangladeshis with valid visas are residing in 27 European countries and they also have work plus resident permits.