As many as 7,448 Indians are in prisons across 81 countries, according to this reply to the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) by minister of state for external affairs M J Akbar on July 19, 2017.

Saudi Arabia tops the list with 2,046 Indians jailed, followed by United Arab Emirates (1,376), Nepal (852), Kuwait (506), and Pakistan (468). The top five countries account for 70% of Indians jailed abroad.

Graph

Source:Lok Sabha

“The United States of America, Canada, Australia and many countries in Europe do not share

information about Indian nationals in their prisons due to the strict provisions of privacy laws,” Akbar told the Lok Sabha.

(Mallapur is an analyst with IndiaSpend.)

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Chaitanya Mallapur

    Chaitanya has a masters degree in politics from the University of Mumbai and a bachelor's degree in computer science. His areas of interest are foreign policy and security studies. He has also worked with ET NOW, a business news channel, as an assistant producer in the digital team.