More Indian prisoners are languishing in Bangladesh jails than in Pakistan, official sources said in Delhi on Thursday.
The latest figures available with the Ministry of External Affairs indicate that there are 893 Indians in Bangladeshi prisons compared to 655 in Pakistani jails.
However, Saudi Arabia accounted for the highest number of Indians behind bars with figures as high as 1,116. This is nearly one-sixth of all the Indian prisoners around the world put together, which comes to 6,277.
After Saudi Arabia, the other countries with relatively high number of Indian prisoners are UAE (825), Singapore (791), Malaysia (545), UK (239), US (194), Kuwait (106) and Bahrain (101).
Czech Republic and Slovak Republic have 37 and 100 Indians as prisoners.
The ministry sources said the Indian government, through its missions and posts abroad, keeps making all possible efforts to get Indian nationals in foreign jails released quickly.
The government also provides legal advice to the prisoners, interacts with their relatives in India, ensures fair and humane treatment and facilitates repatriation of released prisoners to India.
Gulf region accounted for a higher number of Indian prisoners because large number of Indian skilled and unskilled workers migrate there to earn their livelihood.
Saudi Arabia accounts for the largest number of Indian workforce with 12,39,686 Indians employed there. This is followed by UAE (7,70,000), Kuwait (4,77,938), Oman (3,68,277), Qatar (2,20,000) and Bahrain (2,18,242).
With the exception of UAE, India does not have any memorandum of understanding in the field of manpower.
Sources said the government was considering to sign MoUs with other Gulf countries also to protect the rights of migrants labourers.
The MoUs will aim at humane treatment of workers and resolve disputes between workers and employers through joint committees.