Jailed abroad: 362 foreigners in jail despite serving terms

Interior ministry submits details of foreign nationals languishing in Pakistani jails

ISLAMABAD:

Mir Agha, an Afghan national, has been languishing in Balochistan’s dreaded Machh jail for years. He had served out his sentence in 2013 but has been unable to return to Kabul for not having valid travel documents. A similar case is of Abdul Wali from Afghanistan who is waiting in Quetta jail for his release.

Agha and Wali are among 362 foreign nationals from 30 countries who have completed their jail terms but cannot be released as they either have invalid travel documents or their home countries have not paid their travel expenditures.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan recently told the upper house of parliament that these foreigners had completed their sentences but were still in jails due to problems with their travel documents or unavailability of air tickets. The government says efforts are under way to repatriate these prisoners. But the interior ministry cannot give a timeframe as the documentation process alone consumes considerable time.



The ministry submitted these details in the Senate in response to a question raised by Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker Nawabzada Saifullah Magsi, who sought details of the foreigners languishing in Pakistan’s jails despite serving their terms.

According to the figures provided, 117 prisoners are from Bangladesh, 50 from Afghanistan, 41 from India, 40 from Nigeria, 29 from the United Kingdom, 15 from Mongolia, eight from Zimbabwe, seven from South Africa, six each from Zambia and Nepal, five from the United States, four from the Philippines, three each from Turkey, Burma and Kenya, Ivory Coast, two each from Spain, Norway, Mali and Mexico, and one each from Russia, Iraq, Germany, Brunei, Gambia, Guinea, Canada, Iran, Liberia and China.

The official document states that Sindh is hosting the maximum number of foreigners as prisoners with 267 foreign nationals interned in various jails, particularly in Karachi and Hyderabad. In Punjab, 82 foreign nationals are going through the same ordeal.  Another 12 such prisoners are housed in three jails of Balochistan, with three prisoners in the Machh jail and the rest in the Quetta jail. In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, one foreigner is still behind bars despite completing his sentence.

Minister of State for Interior Baligh-ur-Rehman has informed the Senate that the matter has been taken up as some embassies concerned have approached the government. “We will start repatriation of the foreign prisoners after the agencies clear their names,” he said. He added that many embassies have not yet contacted Islamabad for repatriation of their prisoners who have completed their prison terms.

Former Sindh police chief Afzal Shigri believes it is the government’s responsibility to intimate the respective embassies for the release of foreign inmates.

“The government should repatriate them because their detention is illegal after the completion of their sentence and to ease the burden on the national exchequer,” he said. “In case the country concerned is not interested in entertaining its own citizen, the host state should engage welfare organisations for their repatriation.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2015.