Transfer plan for Indian prisoners
Indian inmates in the UAE may be allowed to complete their sentences in their home country under a prison transfer initiative to be discussed next month.
Officials are hopeful of a “breakthrough” in the prisoner transfer agreement during high-level discussions between both countries in the UAE in August.
The proposal is for 77 prisoners to be moved from the Emirates to India as part of an agreement first made between the countries eight years ago.
There are currently about 1,100 Indian prisoners in jails in Dubai and the Northern Emirates.
V Muraleedharan, India’s new Minister of State for External Affairs in charge of relations with the Gulf countries, told India’s lower
house of parliament that efforts were being made to repatriate the prisoners after a request by the Consulate General of India in Dubai.
“The proposal is being processed by the authorities concerned in the UAE and India – in accordance with the procedures laid down in the agreement,” Mr Muraleedharan said.
Prisoners convicted over drugs or financial fraud such as bouncing cheques, and those required to pay blood money for offences such as murder, will not be eligible for transfer.
The bilateral agreement on the “Transfer of sentenced persons” was signed in 2011, with the deal coming into effect two years later.
It was intended to “facilitate the social rehabilitation of sentenced prisoners in their own countries”, said Smita Pant, the deputy chief of mission at the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi.
Neeraj Agarwal, the acting Consul General of India in Dubai, said the details of 77 inmates who were most likely to benefit from the agreement had been handed over.
“We have a high-level joint working group that will cover this issue and other matters in the first week of August and we are expecting some breakthrough,” Mr Agarwal said. “Right now, we do not have concrete information about exactly how many prisoners will be repatriated.”
Procedures and the approval processes have long delayed the transfers.
Volunteers who liaise with consular staff have said many inmates did not want to return home because they had not told their families they were in jail.
The stigma of being in jail was among the reasons why only about 7 per cent of Indian prisoners signed up.
“Very few were willing to spend the rest of their time in India,” Mr Agarwal said.
“The transfer depends on the wishes and will of the prisoner. You cannot force somebody serving a sentence in a local prison here to go to India.”
Prisoners in the UAE from various nationalities are often pardoned during Ramadan.
In May, the UAE President Sheikh Khalifa pardoned more than 3,000 prisoners and pledged to settle the financial penalties owed by 3,005 inmates as part of the country’s aim to provide the prisoners with opportunities to start new lives.
During a visit to India in 2017, Sheikh Dr Sultan Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah, pardoned 149 prisoners who had completed at least three years of sentences for financial or non-violent crimes committed in the emirate.