Foreign minister Hasan Mahmud told Jatiya Sangsad on Monday that a total of 11,450 Bangladeshis, including migrant workers, were languishing in jails in 31 countries.
The foreign minister, who is now visiting Saudi Arabia, came up with the statistics in a scripted answer in reply to a query from a ruling Awami League lawmaker from reserved seats for women, Farida Yasmin.
With speaker Shirin Sharmin Chauhdury in the chair, the question-answer聽 session was tabled.
Quoting different Bangladesh missions abroad, the foreign minister said that the highest 5,746 Bangladeshis remained detained in jails in Saudi Arabia, and the lowest two Bangladeshis each remained in Portugal, Japan, and Belgium jails.
A total of 1,579 Bangladeshis are in jails in India, while 508 are in Turkey, 420 in Oman, 415 in Qatar, 414 in Greece, 404 in the UAE, 385 in South Africa, 358 in Myanmar, 219 in Malaysia, 217 in Iraq, 191 in China, 122 in Hong Kong, 100 in Jordan, 81 in Italy, 70 in the Maldives, 66 in Singapore, 49 in Indonesia, 28 in Lebanon, 19 in Spain, 16 in Brunei, nine in Libya, six each in Egypt and Korea, five in Algeria, four in Thailand, and four in Mozambique, according to the foreign minister.聽
The foreign minister, in reply to another query, said that at present, no Bangladeshis were in Indian jail for entering the country by mistake.
He gave this information in response to the question of AL MP HM Badiuzzaman.