Residence permits: the informer reveals the rates “Sold for 4,000 euros”

I had an agreement with several employers that I would pay between 3,000 and 4,000 euros if the requesting Bangladeshi citizens entered Italy. Of the money I was given, part went to accommodation (1,500 euros), part to flying (1,500 euros) and part to the Dhaka travel agency, in addition to the amount to be paid to employers. My nephew and I made about 1,000 euros each». Islam Nazrul, one of the most prominent members of the Bangladeshi community in Italy, empties the bag and returns the black market price for residence permits and visas, net of the sums paid to bribe officials at the Italian Bangladeshi embassy: cell phones, televisions, cars, stays in Dubai, and luxury safaris. A system that has been going on for a long time. Until they offered around two million euros to MP Andrea Di Giuseppe (Brothers of Italy), a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. The politician reported the matter and the matter ended up in court: two Italian embassy employees are also involved. Recently Islam Nazrul and accomplice Kazi Shamim changed their defenders. They are assisted by lawyers Pierpaolo Dell’Anno and Giuseppe Murone. And last week, in court, the two defendants decided to confess. They explained that to bring their compatriots to Italy it was necessary to demonstrate that they could work. So we needed compliant employers: «Against 4,000 euros he (the entrepreneur, ed.) would have hired and paid my compatriots 1,200 euros a month as a salary». Again: «4,000 euros went to the entrepreneur and 1,000 euros to me». Instead, for a clearance you had to know «someone at the Prefecture or the Police… to do this job you needed 300 euros». Once the paperwork was sorted out, it was necessary to turn to the embassy, or rather to the unfaithful officials. And that’s where Nicola Muscatello comes in. «I met him through his brother Giuseppe, who held a position at the Presidency of the Lazio Region and who visited my restaurant Il Siciliano Fish on several occasions towards the end of 2021», the suspects say. The round of money was important: «In 2022 I delivered 10,000 euros… destined for a person at the Italian embassy in Dhaka, Nicola Muscatello… he could have helped us with the visas». For each successful case, the man received a fee of «800 euros per person». The favors would have been varied: dinners at restaurants, money paid to a friend, hotel rooms, and even charitable activities such as meals brought to Bambino Gesù, for a young girl who didn’t eat Italian food. «There was a tacit agreement, according to which I handed over the money so that he could carry out checks on the status of the applications for me and could prioritize my applications over the others», the suspects say, speaking of important deliveries: «I gave 30,000 euros in cash for 40 requests that I sent to him during 2022. 10,000 were mine, 10,000 from a travel agency in Dhaka and 10,000 from my nephew». Other tourist visa fees: «I had to take care of the hotel for the first week (equal to 700 euros), the plane (1,500 euros) and the agency in Bangladesh (1,000 euros), my nephew and I shared the extras (more or less 2,500 euros)». It was the price of corruption, to transform rights into privileges bestowed only on those willing to pay.