Bangladeshi influx nearly doubles Italy’s migrant arrivals

ROME – European authorities say that an influx of Bangladeshis coming from Libya has contributed to a near-doubling of migrants arriving in Italy last month.

The European Union’s Frontex border patrol agency said Wednesday that there were 10,900 detections of illegal border crossings into the European Union at the three main border crossings — some 9,000 from the central Mediterranean route, with the rest from the Greek islands and the western Balkans. That’s less than a 10th of the figure from the same period last year, but 46 per cent higher than in January because of the unusually busy Libya-Italy route.

Frontex said Guinean and Bangladeshis were the top nationalities reaching Italy last month, with Bangladeshis often flying to Tripoli on work visas and then paying smugglers to get to Europe.