Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh: Bangladesh freed four Burmese nationals in the last one month after the country failed to repatriate Released Prisoners (RP) through normal procedures, according to an official source.

The jail authorities have started freeing foreign nationals languishing in Bangladeshi jails for years after serving their sentences, due to diplomatic and bureaucratic hassles.

Inspector General of Prisons (IG- Prisons) Brig Gen Zakir Hussain said they had taken the step on humanitarian grounds and also after considering the sufferings the prisoners have endured.

"We have already freed six foreigners including 4-Burmese nationals after taking bonds from their relatives and lawyers in the last one month. We also hope to free 20 more foreign nationals in the next one month," added Brig Gen Hussain.

According to jail sources, currently, a total of 878 nationals from 11 countries are in various prisons in Bangladesh. Among them jail terms of 266 foreign nationals expired long ago.

Of the foreign prisoners, 515 are Burmese. The jail terms of 30 foreign nationals expired 15 years ago, while 80 others have completed their terms 5 years back, according to sources.

As per the normal procedure, the jail authorities send necessary papers to the Home Ministry, which forwards the information to the Foreign Ministry for repatriation of the foreign prisoners. Then, the ministry contacts the embassies or high commissions of the countries concerned. But the authorities concerned could not collect information about the foreign prisoners, mostly--- Burmese and Indian ---since they did not have any passports, sources said.

A few NGOs have been working for repatriation of the foreign prisoners. Bangladesh has to shoulder the cost of keeping them in jails. An NGO named Aain O Shalish Kendra is also carrying out activities in the regard, said Sultana Kamal, a former adviser to the caretaker government and the executive director of the NGO. She also said that in most cases, they do not receive any response from the embassies or high commissions concerned as they often do not want to acknowledge the prisoners as their nationals.

About 300 foreign prisoners have been languishing in Bangladeshi jails after completing their jail terms, sources said. ##