KATHMANDU, AUGUST 20A total of 1,385 foreigners have been doing time in Nepal's prisons for their involvement in various criminal activities as per data released by the Department of Prison Management in mid-July 2023. Pakistan's ex-PM Imran Khan goes from high office to high-security prison after sentencing Supreme Court rules commuting Koirala's sentence was wrong According to the DoPM, the foreign nationals are serving jail sentence or awaiting final court verdict in 59 prisons across the country.

The number of foreigners doing time in Nepali prisons continues to rise, it said.

The country has 74 prisons in 72 of 77 districts.Central Jail based in Sundhara houses the largest number of foreign jailbirds (251).

Similarly, Parsa District Prison has 192 foreigners followed by Jhapa District Prison (120), Nakkhu Jail (94) and Morang District Prison (63).

The remaining prisons have foreign inmates ranging from 1 to 52, while 15 prisons do not have any foreigners. The number of foreigners in the jails indicates the impact of transnational crime in Nepal.

Many drug smugglers were found making Nepal their transit point to push contraband into various countries, said the DoPM.The foreign inmates are Indians, Chinese, Bhutanese, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Bolivians, Zambians, Canadians, Korean, Serbians, Germans and Americans, among others.

Any foreign national, who commits crime on Nepali soil, is liable to fine and jail sentence as per the existing laws of the country.These foreigners are serving jail terms for their involvement in drug smuggling, human trafficking, banking offence, smuggling of fake currency notes, fraud, lottery scam, wildlife crime, paedophilia, gold smuggling and trading in wildlife body parts, cybercrime, rape, murder, forgery of passports and citizenship certificates.A version of this article appears in the print on August 21, 2023, of The Himalayan Times. .

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