Gujarat's biggest prison complex, Sabarmati Central Jail that houses over 3,000 inmates, is also home to 139 inmates who are not Indians.
Gujarat's biggest prison complex, Sabarmati Central Jail that houses over 3,000 inmates, is also home to 139 inmates who are not Indians. And of these, 60% are from the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Pakistan.
"Sixty per cent of the 139 foreign inmates at Sabarmati Jail are from Bangladesh and Pakistan, while the remaining 40% hail from African and other Asian nations as well as the UK," said DIG - Prisons, Shashikant Trivedi.
According to Trivedi, most of the foreign inmates are facing cases of forgery of documents and illegal immigration charges, the trials for which are in process.
There are 31 Somali prisoners lodged in the jail, making them the second largest foreign inmate population after the 66 Bangladeshis lodged here. In addition, the jail also houses 20 prisoners from Pakistan.
There are two prisoners from the UK as well. They were arrested for using fake credit cards to buy valuables and other items from India, say jail authorities. Among other nationals housed in the jail are Yemeni, Nigerian, Nepalese and Korean as well as Malaysian and Sri Lankan inmates. There is also a sole Lebanese inmate housed here.
According to the authorities, there has been a recent surge in the number of prisoners from African nations, who are most often held on charges of forged immigration documents as well as for their illegal overstay in the country.
But all these foreign prisoners have one thing in common - they, obviously, do not know the local language. This makes it a task for the authorities and these inmates alike to communicate with each other. There is no official translator for effective communication either, making even the routine communication a chore.
Apart from the language barrier, the other issue is the local food served in the prison. Most of these prisoners come from countries where eating non-vegetarian food is a regular occurrence, which is not the case at all at Sabarmati jail. According to a source, a Nigerian inmate was so frustrated with the food arrangements that he even tried to commit suicide in 2010.
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