Indians in foreign jails: Over 10,000 nationals imprisoned abroad, highest in Saudi Arabia, says MEA

As per the report, which discussed ‘Indian Diaspora Overseas including NRIs, PIOs, OCIs and Migrant Workers, nine of these 12 countries are already covered under existing agreements on Transfer of Sentenced Persons, that allow a person convicted of a crime to be transferred to his or her home country to serve the prison sentence.

However, despite that, only eight prisoners could be brought back to serve jail in India over the last three years (between 2023 and March 2025): three each from Iran and the United Kingdom, and two from Cambodia and Russia.

On being enquired by the Committee – headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor – on the steps being taken by the Government for the release of these prisoners, the Ministry said that the issue of release and repatriation of Indian nationals in foreign prisons is regularly pursued by Indian Missions and Posts abroad with the local authorities concerned.

Recently, Indian national Amit Gupta — regional head at Tech Mahindra, who was serving in Doha for over 12 years — was detained in Qatar. His family has claimed they have limited access to him.

Since many of these are undertrials, the Ministry stated to the panel that apart from extending all possible consular assistance to Indians imprisoned abroad, Indian Missions and Posts also assist in providing legal aid wherever needed. Missions and Posts also maintain a local panel of lawyers where the Indian community is in sizable numbers. “No fee is charged from any Indian prisoner for extending facilities by the Indian Embassy concerned,” they said.

Even as India has already signed transfer treaties with several countries, including Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, France, Hong Kong, Iran, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, UAE and the UK, it has met with limited success since the process is time consuming and requires multiple approvals.

As per the MEA: “Consent of the prisoner, host country and transferring country are required for transfer under TSP agreement. The Ministry of Home Affairs is the nodal authority overseeing transfer of prisoners under TSP agreement and is currently processing a number of cases.” The Ministry says that MHA is working on negotiating for signing such agreements with various other countries.

These cases involve several stages of processing. These include obtaining consent of the transferring country, availability of complete documentation necessary for processing the request, obtaining comments of the State Government concerned, identification of the specific prison where the prisoner is to be lodged, and making escort arrangements by the State Government concerned for transfer from foreign country to India. The MEA told the panel that no rigid timeline can be fixed for completion of such requests.