Kathmandu, February 1:

Nepal has not signed the Prisoners Transfer and Exchange Treaty (PTET) with any country.

If it had, 80 Nepalis would not have been rotting in Bangkok jails.Consider this.

Maya Tamang desperately wanted to hear from her husband, who had flown to Macao for employment. A relative told her Thai police had picked him up in Bangkok five months ago.

She said: “I was told he was jailed for drug peddling.”

Bir Bahadur Tamang, brother of Beg Bahadur Tamang, serving life term in a Bangkok jail, confirmed it through correspondence with other inmates.

Maya’s hopes were dashed when she heard that most of the Nepali inmates in Bangkok jails are sentenced to 40 years in jail.

But nationals of other countries do not spend so many years in jail. That’s because those countries have signed a Prisoners Transfer and Exchange Treaty (PTET) with Thailand and other countries.

Asked about this, spokesperson of the ministry of foreign affairs, Yadav Khanal, said : “The is the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) should take the initiative in this regard.” But an official at the Narcotics Control Section (NCS) of the MoHA expressed ignorance . “It is a new issue. We will think about it.”

Citizens of those countries that have signed PTET seldom stay in prison for over eight years. “We have found that Nigerian inmates were transferred to their country, but the Nepal government never showed interest in it,” Bir said.

Bir, who visited the Bangkok jail this November, said the plight of Nepali inmates is pathetic.

Gaman Ghale, who was released on royal pardon in July after serving 12 years and six months in jail, said that they were tortured. “We were shackled with chain that weighted 10 kg. Sixty of us were herded in a room and forced to work during day with iron chain on. We would be punished for not completing the assigned work, which included wielding, carpentry, on time,” he recalled.

He said European jailbirds got fair treatment because British officials visited them at least twice a month and observe their situation. “But Nepali embassy even turned down our requests to inform our relatives back home, Khanal brushed off the blame and said the embassy has been providing all assistance to them. “Financial help would not be possible but all the embassy provides possible assistance for every Nepali in all the circumstances,” he said.

The embassy does not update the record of those held in foreign countries. A source at the Narcotic Drug Control Law Enforcement Unit said it collects the record of those held on drug peddling charge.

But he ruled out the chances of Nepalis being innocent in such arrests.