50,000 Bangladeshis freed from foreign jails in 5yrs: Minister

Around 50,000 Bangladeshis were freed from different foreign jails over the last five years, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali told in the parliament today.

As per the statistics placed in the parliament, the minister said a total of 49,503 Bangladeshis were released from prisons in 20 countries in between 2012 and 2016.

The highest 18,721 Bangladeshis were released from Malaysian jails during the same period, while 17,335 prisoners from Saudi and 5,000 from the United Arab Emirates jails, Ali said while replying to lawmakers’ queries.

In the scripted answer, the foreign minister said, 2,025 Bangladeshi prisoners were released from Singapore, 1,982 were freed from Mexico, 875 from India, 728 from Turkey, 720 from Jordan, 650 from Lebanon, 440 from Iraq, 377 from Myanmar, 250 from Hong Kong and 241 from Pakistan.

Apart from this, 48 Bangladeshis were released from Nepal, 45 from Brunei, 35 from Belgium, 17 from Iran, nine from Korea, three from Libya and two from Morocco.

In the reply, Mahmood Ali said Bangladesh missions help Bangladeshi people releasing them from foreign jails through negotiations with the governments of respective countries in some cases.

In reply to a query, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told the House that Bangladesh has extradition treaties with two countries-- India and UAE.

Bangladesh signed 'the agreement on the transfer of sentenced persons' with the UAE in October 2014, he said replying to lawmakers’ queries.

Earlier in 2010, Bangladesh signed the TSP agreement with India, added the home minister.