Question : Indians in Foreign Jails

Will the Minister of EXTERNAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

(a) the details of Indian nationals (convicts and under-trials) lodged in foreign countries prisons, domicile, sex, offence and category-wise;

(b) the number of Indians who have completed their jail terms and the details of steps taken to bring them back to the country;

(c) the total number of applications for repatriation received and the total number of Indian nationals repatriated from foreign prisons since the enactment of the Repatriation of Prisoners Act in 2003;

(d) the number of countries with which India has bilateral agreements in regard to repatriation of prisoners;

(e) the details of the inter-ministerial process of interaction between different Ministries and Departments; and

(f) the details of the average time taken to process such repatriation requests?

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
[GEN. (DR) V. K. SINGH (RETD)]

(a) & (b) As per the information available with the Ministry, the number of Indian prisoners in foreign jails is 7850 and the number of Indians who have completed their jail terms is 360 as of 28.02.2018. Detailed country-wise list is given at Annexure. Due to strong privacy laws prevailing in many countries, the local authorities do not share information on prisoners unless the person concerned consents to the disclosure of such information. Even countries, which share information, do not generally provide the detailed information about the persons who have been imprisoned.

(c) After the enactment of the Repatriation of Prisoners Act in 2003, 170 applications for repatriation have been received and 63 Indian prisoners have been repatriated from foreign prisons.

(d) So far, India has signed bilateral agreements with 30 countries. Besides this, India has acceded to the Inter American Convention, by virtue of which, India can receive and send requests to the member countries as well as those countries who have signed/ratified the Inter American Convention.

(e) & (f) In the process of repatriation, mainly two Ministries of the Government of India are involved i.e. Ministry of External Affairs (Consular, Passport & Visa Division) through its Missions and Posts abroad and the Ministry of Home Affairs (Centre-State Division).

The processing of cases of transfer of prisoners involves steps like nationality verification, security clearance, views of Narcotic Control Bureau (if drug trafficking is involved), identification of prison by the State/Union Territory Government, completion of documents process by the India/foreign Mission concerned and consent of the transferring/receiving Governments. Time taken to process an application for transfer depends on the completion of necessary formalities and documents by the concerned agencies and State/ Union Territory Governments.