Sanjeev Singh Bariana
Chandigarh/New Delhi, December 8
India currently has 9,521 prisoners, including undertrials, in foreign jails, said the Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan in a reply to a query by MP Umesh G Jadhav during the Question Hour of the ongoing Lok Sabha today.
The five countries with the maximum number of Indian prisoners are Saudi Arabia (2,200), United Arab Emirates (2,143), Nepal (1,227), Qatar (752) and Malaysia (309).
The minister said “due to strong privacy laws, in many countries, the local authorities do not share information on prisoners unless the person concerned consents to the disclosure. Even countries which share information do not generally provide detailed information about the foreign nationals imprisoned”.
Extended all help
The Indian mission ensures the rights of the prisoners are protected in jails. They are also extended the consular assistance. —V Muraleedharan, MOS, External Affairs
India has extradition arrangements with Croatia, Peru, Tanzania, Fiji, Singapore, Antigua and Barbuda, Italy, Sri Lanka, Armenia, Papua New Guinea, Sweden and New Zealand. India has signed the Agreement on Transfer of Sentenced Persons (TSP) with 31 countries. Under the provisions of TSP, Indian prisoners lodged in foreign countries can be transferred to India to serve the remainder of their sentence and vice-versa. Prominent countries on the list included Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, France, Hong Kong, Iran, Israel, Italy, Kuwait, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom.
India has also signed two multilateral conventions on TSP, including the American Convention on Serving Criminal Sentences Abroad and Council of Europe Convention on Transfer of Sentenced Persons.
Providing more details, the reply read: “The Indian mission after receiving the information about detention of an Indian national gets in touch with the foreign office concerned for getting access to the arrested or detained national. The mission ensures the rights of the prisoner are protected in jails. He is also extended the consular assistance.”
The minister also informed that the prisoner is not charged any fee for extending him help by the Indian Embassy concerned. The Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF), in the Indian Missions & Posts, is used for assisting prisoners.
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