Broken lives.

Byline: Sana Farrukh

A PAKISTANI in a foreign jail is not an uncommon phenomenon. Approximately 11,000 of us are imprisoned around the world. We cannot acknowledge International Migrants Day this Dec 18 without also acknowledging that most of these individuals migrated with the weight of poverty and destitution on their backs, their feeble hope for a better life trailing behind them. They are born without privilege, and to uncertain futures. Upon realising that the roads that took them further from home have led to a dead end, they are ordinarily ill-equipped to communicate with their captors, let alone provide a defence. How do you pursue rights you cannot even be sure you have?

The percentage of incarcerated individuals worldwide is rising exponentially, and these populations are more diverse than ever before, with many prisoners in a country's prison being foreign nationals. Bilateral or multilateral treaties between states in the form of Prison Transfer Agreements (PTAs) can facilitate the transfer of a foreign prisoner back to their state of origin, improving prison conditions and creating a safer environment for the transferred prisoner, one that is more conducive to rehabilitation and eventual reintegration into society.

What is a Pakistani prisoner detained overseas facing?

Despite the potential for fruitful transfer and the incentive for states to arrange them, as with any multi-state negotiation, PTAs are not straightforward to enter into. Perhaps this is why, with only a handful of functional PTAs to its credit, Pakistan has fallen behind global standards in procuring them. There is a myriad of complex decisions to make, including determining the eligibility and procedure for applying for a transfer, and standard on which to decide them, and along what lines the sentences of the sending state can be altered, if at all, by the receiving state. Once in place, many PTAs are suspended due to breaches between the sending and receiving states, and an inability to trust the criminal justice system that is going to be administering the sentence incurred for crimes in another.

What is a Pakistani prisoner detained overseas facing? With the vast majority of them awaiting trial and serving sentences in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman, they encounter an alien legal system and lack the capacity to navigate it. This is a pervasive threat in a relentless maze, and lack of language proficiency is a wound inflicted on an accused every time they...