Development Cooperation
Italy does not have a bilateral development cooperation programme with Bangladesh but actively contributes to the definition of development aid policies and programmes promoted in Bangladesh by the European Union and multilateral bodies (World Bank, Asian Development Bank and United Nations agencies).
Italian Law 125/2014, which reformed international cooperation, defines Development Cooperation as “an integral and qualifying aspect of Italy’s foreign policy.” The same law established the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), tasked with carrying out the technical and operational activities related to the assessment, design, financing, management, and monitoring of development cooperation initiatives.
The Agency currently operates twenty offices worldwide, each with a defined geographical scope. Since 2022, the AICS Office in Hanoi has been responsible for ongoing projects in Bangladesh, which are currently limited to the emergency sector in support of the protracted Rohingya population crisis.
In February 2025, two new initiatives were launched to support the Rohingya population hosted in the Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char camps in Bangladesh. These projects, implemented respectively by the World Food Programme (WFP) (€2 million) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) (€1 million), renew the previous support funded by Italian Cooperation. They aim to assist both the Rohingya population and host communities in key areas such as food security and protection, promoting a gender-responsive approach and the principle of accountability to affected populations — a commitment by humanitarian and development organizations to empower communities through participation, transparency, and feedback mechanisms that safeguard their dignity and rights.
Although Bangladesh is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, the Government continues to provide international humanitarian protection to approximately 1.1 million Rohingya — members of an ethnic minority persecuted and displaced from Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
Over the years, Italian Cooperation’s support for the Government of Bangladesh in managing the Rohingya crisis has been expressed through contributions from the Directorate General for Development Cooperation (DGCS) to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and UNHCR, as well as through initiatives of the Directorate General for Italians Abroad and Migration Policies (DGIT), implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UNHCR.
Updated October 2025
To find out more see in website
EEAS EUROPA
Between 2017 and 2024, Italy disbursed over 14 million euros for OO.II. in favor of Rohingya refugees.
See also the AICS page dedicated to Bangladesh
AICS
ITALIAN COMMUNITY IN BANGLADESH
The Italian presence in Bangladesh is made up of about a hundred people of Italian citizenship alone and a few hundred dual citizens. Among the holders of Italian citizenship only, the religious, mainly Xaverian and PIME, and entrepreneurs in the textile sector stand out. Among the religious, Father Marino Rigon (1925 – 2017) deserves to be remembered, not only for his activity as a Xaverian missionary for over 60 years in Bangladesh, but for his contribution, also as a translator, to the spread of Italian culture in Bangladesh and Bengali in Italy. For his merits, Father Rigon has been awarded prestigious Italian and Bangladesrs. He is buried in the cemetery of Mongla, Bangladeshhe Italian presence in Bangladesh is made up of about a hundred people of Italian citizenship alone and a few hundred dual citizens. Among the holders of Italian citizenship only, the religious, mainly Xaverian and PIME, and entrepreneurs in the texthi honors. He is buried in the cemetery of Mongla, Bangladesh
BANGLADESHI DIASPORA IN ITALY
The Bangladeshi community in Italy is the largest in Europe, second only to that in the United Kingdom. More than 200,000 Bangladeshi people live in Italy, who contribute significantly to the Italian economy with their work. Numerous Bangladeshi migrants have acquired Italian citizenship over the years. Remittances sent from Italy to Bangladesh in 2023 exceeded one billion euros, ranking first among the countries of destination of remittances from Italy. There are also many irregular migrants from Bangladesh in Italy. In 2024, Bangladeshis became the first national group to arrive on the Central Mediterranean route. For some years they have also been the largest national group of asylum seekers in Italy.
The Embassy of Italy in Dhaka is committed to responding to the demand for services that derive from these intense migratory relations, especially with regard to visas, transcriptions of civil status documents and consular documents in general. Consult this report to learn more about the Bangladeshi presence in Italy.
Report 2023