4 December 2011
HYDERABAD — The Migrant Rights Council (MRC), an organisation that takes up the cause of Non-Resident Indians, has urged the government to provide assistance to poor Indian migrants who were in jail in Gulf countries including Dubai.
Stating that poor Indian in jail required government assistance in the form of legal aid to come out, Banda Surender Reddy, advisor to MRC, told mediapersons in Hyderabad that there were nearly 5000 prisoners in jail all over the Middle East including 1200 in the United Arab Emirates. “The benefits of the recently concluded prisoner transfer (PT) agreement between India and UAE are yet to be availed,” he said and cited instances of recent deaths of prisoners in foreign jails and requested the government to take urgent steps to ensure assistance is provided to the prisoners in need.
“Indian embassies abroad should have a dedicated staff to address issues of Indian prisoners. Indian migrant workers are bread winners for their families and their imprisonment leads to their families suffering here,” said Reddy, pointing out that most Indian prisoners in UAE were not educated, and do not understand the Sharia law which has provisions for pardon for a murderer if ‘blood money’ was paid to the family of the deceased. The MRC members said that they celebrated UAE’s National Day on Friday as Indo-Arab friendship day. They said that with the recently concluded prisoner swap agreement between the two countries, prisoners convicted in UAE will be able to come back home and serve the rest of their jail terms here, which would greatly reduce the anxieties of the families.
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