Saudi Arabia has imprisoned 2,181 Indians, while 1,628 have been jailed in the UAE. (Representational)
As many as 7,850 Indians are lodged in jails abroad, with the highest number of over 2,000 nationals in prisons in Saudi Arabia, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said today.
In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, he said 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.
"As per the information available with the ministry, the number of Indian prisoners in foreign jails is 7,850 and the number of Indians who have completed their jail terms is 360 as of 28.02.2018," he said.
Saudi Arabia has the maximum number of 2,181 Indian prisoners followed by the UAE with 1,628.
Mr Singh also said that after the enactment of the Repatriation of Prisoners Act in 2003, 170 applications for repatriation have been received and 63 Indian prisoners have been repatriated from foreign prisons.
Replying to a separate written question on whether the government has initiated and completed the DNA testing of the families of 39 Indian workers that are missing since June 2014 from Mosul in Iraq, Singh replied in the affirmative.
"DNA samples, as received from our respective state governments, have been forwarded to the Iraqi authorities for inclusion in their database for matching with the DNA from the human remains being retrieved by them from mass graves. The report of the test is awaited," the minister added.