Bangladesh-Libya-Italie. This journey, almost 8,000 km long, is today the most borrowed route by Bangladais migrants wishing to reach Europe. From 1er January to June 9, out of the 57,222 exiles arrived on the old continent-mainly by sea (Mediterranean basin and Atlantic Ocean)-, 5,840 people are from this Southern Asian country, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), making them the first contingent of illegal migrants to enter Europe.
These Bangladais nationals disembark on the Italian coast, in Lampedusa or Naples, after having passed through Libya. In the first half of 2025, they represented 37 % of the 22,734 migrants from this North African country, far ahead of Eritreans (1,748) and the Pakistanis (1,705). As in 2024: out of the 66,617 arrivals in Italy, 14,284 people, or about 21 %, came from this distant country.
“This is not a flow [migratoire] new, but it takes on the importance of year to year ”, Specifies Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (OIM). The Bangladais represented 14.5 % of arrivals in Italy in 2022, around 12 % in 2020 and 2021, only 3.3 % in 2015.
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Source: Lemonde