The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Thursday that the Court of First Instance in Qatar had sentenced eight Indian nationals to death. The eight former members of the Indian Navy have been imprisoned since August 2022 after being arrested by Qatari Intelligence in Doha following allegations of spying.
The incident, once again, brings the spotlight on Indians imprisoned in Gulf countries. News18 takes a look at the count of Indian prisoners in Qatar’s prisons.
According to data provided by the Ministry of External Affairs as of March 24 this year, there are 8,437 Indian prisoners, including under trials, in foreign prisons. Since 2007, this is the all-time highest number of Indians jailed in foreign prisons.
“However, 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. Even countries which share information do not generally provide detailed information about the foreign nationals imprisoned,” stated the ministry.
As per the data available with MEA, the following reflects the number of Indian prisoners in Arab countries:
Bahrain: 265
Egypt: 1
Israel: 9
Kuwait: 428
Lebanon: 5
Jordon: 30
Morocco: 1
Oman: 92
Qatar: 682
Saudi Arabia: 1,362
South Sudan: 1
United Arab Emirates (UAE): 1,966
Yemen: 1
Among the top five Arab countries where Indians have been imprisoned, UAE has the highest figures with 1,966 prisoners, followed by Saudi Arabia with 1,362 prisoners, Qatar with 682, Kuwait with 428, and Bahrain with 265 prisoners respectively, as of March 2023.
Of the 8,441 Indian detainees in 2022, 156 of them were serving life sentences. According to the data of MEA, in 2022, over 50 per cent Indian prisoners — 4,389 including those who were pending trials and those imprisoned — are in Gulf countries. Among them the most number of prisoners — 1,858 — are in the UAE jail alone.
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