“Bureaucracies, as we know, are often corrupt and corruptible,” declares Stefano Morea, Secretary General of CGIL-Flai, the Federation of Agricultural Industry Workers. The investigation has uncovered an international corruption network involving Rolex watches, tablets, and trips to Dubai in exchange for work visas for Bangladeshi citizens. Currently, five people are under investigation, including two officials from the Italian Embassy in Dhaka.
At the center of the investigation is Islam Nazrul, the owner of the Roman restaurant Il Siciliano Fish, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the illegal immigration facilitation scheme.
Nazrul is a sixty-year-old entrepreneur from Bangladesh. According to reconstructions, he allegedly created a system based on bribing officials to bring Bangladeshi workers to Italy. This illicit visa issuance system allowed Bangladeshi citizens to enter Italy after paying sums ranging from 7,000 to 15,000 euros. Exploiting the Decreto Flussi (Flow Decree), the restaurateur identified Italian companies, sometimes fictitious, willing to hire foreign workers, thus enabling their legal entry.
To speed up the procedures, the prosecution alleges that he bribed visa office officials in Dhaka with money, luxury items, airline tickets, and real estate investments in the Emirates. However, many of the recruited Bangladeshis, once in Italy, did not find the promised jobs and were left in a state of illegality.
The investigation was launched by the Guardia di Finanza in Rome following a report by Fratelli d’Italia MP Andrea Di Giuseppe, a member of the Foreign and European Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies. According to Di Giuseppe’s statements, Nazrul attempted to contact him in an effort to bribe him and gain his support in facilitating illegal visa issuance. The proposed compensation for his cooperation amounted to two million euros, equivalent to a quarter of the total profits generated by the trafficking scheme.
The case appears to be part of a broader, internationally rooted corruption network. CGIL-Flai Secretary Stefano Morea explained: “Some might argue that the current government cannot be held responsible, as this model has been in place since the Bossi-Fini law,” referring to the 2002 legislation regulating immigration. “I have no prejudice,” he continued: “I don’t believe the line between good and bad is drawn by party affiliation, but rather by actions. However, it is undeniable that those in power can use their influence to change things.”
Investigations are ongoing, with the Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza working to reconstruct the immigration network. There are also suspicions regarding the possible involvement of officials from the Prefectures of Rome and Naples in issuing the necessary clearances for visas. The case has yet to be fully verified, but official charges could shed light on a system in which companies exploit the Flow Decree to promise jobs in Italy, demanding exorbitant fees from foreign workers to obtain them, while intermediaries profit from this illegal network.
