Dhaka, Nov. 10 -- People who pay middlemen large sums to travel illegally to Europe by sea are not only "victims" but also "responsible" for their fate, Italian Ambassador to Bangladesh Antonio Alessandro has said.

Speaking at a discussion in Dhaka on Monday, he remarked: "I noticed that in the media, you use the word victims for these people. I think that they become victims afterwards when they go through so many bad things, Libya, torture, that they travel by sea, some people die."

"Certainly they become victim. But at the beginning, when they pay this insane amount of money to an illegal middleman, they are not victims, they are co-responsible for their own fate and destiny."

"I think that we should also pass this message because y...