NEW DELHI: There are 7,925 Indian prisoners languishing in foreign jails, with the highest number in the United Arab Emirates at 1663, followed by Saudi Arabia at 1363 and Nepal at 1039.
This was revealed by Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs V Muraleedharan in Parliament. "This data also includes undertrials," he said.
India has signed treaties for the transfer of sentenced persons with 35 countries under which Indian prisoners can be brought back home (subject to the concurrence of both countries and also the prisoner) to serve the remainder of their sentences. This benefit, however, is not available to prisoners awarded a death sentence.
"From January 2006 to January 2022, around 75 Indian prisoners have been transferred under the Repatriation of Prisoners Act, 2003 to serve the remainder of their sentence," Muraleedharan says.
The other countries which include a high number of Indian prisoners are Pakistan 628, Qatar 466, Kuwait 460 and Malaysia 290.
Sri Lanka, which is often in the news due to fisherman from India being detained there, has 76 Indian prisoners.
The Indian embassies in different countries pay regular visits to jail to meet the prisoners. Interpreters, where required, are provided along with initial legal assistance.
Volunteers from the Indian community who are registered with the embassy also extend help to the inmates.
For those who have completed their sentence, the embassy provides emergency certificates for expeditious travel and also helps those in dire need with tickets to avoid delay in departure.
Meanwhile, back home in India seven out of every 10 prisoners of foreign origin in Indian jails at the end of 2020 were undertrials with nearly half of such inmates being from Bangladesh, according to the recently released 'Prison Statistics India 2020' of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
Interestingly, the number of foreigners lodged in Indian jails has come down marginally from 5,157 in 2018 to 4,926 in 2020. West Bengal has the highest number of foreign convicts, followed by Uttar Pradesh and then Delhi.