India, Vietnam sign pact on transfering sentenced prisoners

India and Vietnam signed a pact which would allow both countries to exchange sentenced prisoners lodged in their jails, Indias interior ministry said Friday. Indias interior minister Sushilkumar Shinde signed the pact with Minister of Public Security of Vietnam, Tran Dai Quang, in New Delhi to transfer sentenced prisoners, the ministry statement said. "The Treaty will help the Indian prisoners imprisoned in Vietnam or vice-versa to be near their families for serving remaining part of their sentence. This would facilitate the process of their social rehabilitation," the ministry stated. India has so far signed similar Agreements with the UK, Mauritius, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Egypt, France, Bangladesh, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sri Lanka, UAE, Maldives, Thailand, Turkey, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel and Russia. "Negotiations have also been concluded with the Government of Canada, Hong Kong, Brazil, and Spain," the ministry added. India said such pacts have helped the country in repatriating 43 Indian prisoners from Sri Lanka, Mauritius and UK. Similarly seven prisoners of UK and France where repatriated to their respective countries, the ministry said. The Seventh United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders adopted the Model Agreement on the Transfer of Foreign Prisoners in 1985 and since then many countries have arrived at bilateral and multilateral treaties. "The Repatriation of Prisoners Act, 2003 was enacted for achieving transfer of foreign prisoners 1985. For achieving the objectives of the Act, a treaty is required to be signed with countries having mutual interest on this matter, " the ministry noted. Two Ministers also held bilateral talks on security matters, issues of training, capacity building, cyber security, cyber crime, trans-national crime, terrorism and disaster management, the ministry added.