Over 12,000 Pakistanis languishing in foreign jails: Reports

According to reports, over 50 per cent of them are currently present in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This information was provided to the National Assembly Secretariat by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to a question asked by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MNA Sikandar Ali Rahoupoto, reports Dawn News.

The ministry has compiled data on the basis of information provided to it by the Pakistani missions abroad. The ministry has not provided details of the nature of crimes for which these Pakistanis are in jails as the questioner had not asked about it.

According to the document, available with Dawn News, a total of 12,080 Pakistanis are presently in jails, out of which 3,100 each are in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The data shows that out of 3,100 Pakistanis in the UAE, 1,612 are in Abu Dhabi and 1,488 in Dubai.

Similarly, in Saudi Arabia, 1,596 Pakistanis are in jails in Riyadh whereas another 1,504 are presently detained in Jeddah.

Besides these two Arab countries, there are 811 Pakistani prisoners in Greece, the country which remained in news after a boat tragedy in which more than 200 Pakistanis had died.

The data shows that there are 683 Pakistanis in various jails in India, 672 in Iraq, 586 in Italy, 540 in Oman and 275 in the United Kingdom.

According to a report released in April 2019 by the Justice Project Pakistan, a non-governmental organisation working for Pakistani prisoners at home and abroad, around 11,000 Pakistanis, including 3,309 in Saudi Arabia, had been suffering in various jails abroad.

“Weak regulation of labour migration in Pakistan leaves thousands of mostly low-wage Pakistani male workers vulnerable to human trafficking, forced labour, ill-treatment in detention overseas and even the risk of death,” the report has said.