RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2731
TO BE ANSWERED ON 10.08.2017
INDIANS IN FOREIGN PRISONS
2731. SHRI HUSAIN DALWAI:
Will the Minister of EXTERNAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state:
(a) the details of Indian nationals lodged in foreign prisons convicted and under trials, domicile-wise, gender-wise, offence-wise and category-wise;
(b) 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, 2003;
(c) the number of countries with which India has bilateral agreements in regard to repatriation of prisoners; and
(d) the details of inter-ministerial process of interaction between different Ministries and Departments within Government and the average time taken to process such repatriation requests?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
(SHRI M.J. AKBAR)
(a) As per the information available with the Ministry, country-wise list showing the details is attached as
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 the information, do not generally provide
the detailed information about the Indians who have been imprisoned.
(b) After the enactment of the Repatriation of Prisoners Act in 2003, 170 applications for repatriation have been received and 61 Indian prisoners have been repatriated from foreign prisons.
(c) 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.
(d) 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 and an application for transfer depends on the completion of necessary formalities and documents by the concerned agencies
and State/ Union Territory Governments.
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