Kathmandu, May 5:

Relatives of Nepali inmates languishing in prisons of Bangkok on the charge of peddling drugs today urged the government to immediately sign the Prisoner Transfer Exchange Treaty (PTET) with the Thai government.

Once the PTET is signed, the inmates can serve remaining jail terms in Nepal, they said.

“We will not be able to see them in this lifetime if the government does not sign the PTET immediately,” Bir Bahadur Tamang, whose brother Beg Bahadur Tamang has been serving life term in Bangkok, said. According to him, families of the inmates have only heard of their arrests.

“They do not know whether they have been arrested,” Tamang said, adding that he got a chance to visit Bangkok jails along with an American national last year.

He said up to 80 Nepalis are serving jail terms, adding that most of them were serving life term. The rest have been sentenced to 50 years of imprisonment in four jails in Bangkok.

Among the inmates, 71-year-old Bishnu Kumari Bista has served 13 years of her 33-year jail term.

Hiralal Tamang, a 55-year-old native of Dhading, said he wanted to see his grandson once. “We cannot go there. We don’t know how we can bring the imprisoned persons here,” he said, adding, “We will be grateful to those who can bring our beloved home.”

Thai police picked up Hiralal’s grandson Arun Kumar Tamang five years ago. Arun has been serving life imprisonment.

“We want our relatives to serve their jail term in Nepal so that we can meet them at times,” he said. Bir Bahadur said relatives of the inmates have formed an association under his leadership to facilitate the return of Nepalis languishing in Bangkok prisons to Nepal.

A rights activist, Sudip Pathak, also urged the government to address the issue. He said rights activists would support the initiative taken by the relatives of the inmates.