PUTRAJAYA, Sept 14 — The International Transfer Of Prisoners Bill 2012 will be tabled at the parliament session starting September 24.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said the Bill will help the government deal with the increasing number of foreigners languishing in Malaysian prisons.

“The Bill allows Malaysian prisoners overseas to return and serve the remaining sentence in the country while foreigners in our prisons can be deported home to serve the remaining sentence,” he told reporters here today.

The programme will be implemented with the signing of a treaty to transfer prisoners between countries.

The conditions of transfer include final sentence (prisoner has exhausted all appeals), offence in both countries (dual criminality), prisoner has over six months sentence left from the date of application.

Hishammuddin (picture) said that the Bill is also applicable to prisoners on parole. 

It will have positive impact on the families of prisoners, effectiveness of rehabilitation programmes in the country of origin because of environmental factors that are more conducive, and an international practice.

Six countries namely the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia have expressed interest in the international transfer of prisoners.

“As of August 2012, some 37,157 prisoners are serving prison sentences nationwide of which 10,520 are foreigners. Of the number, 1,758 from 18 countries are eligible to be transferred according to the terms set.”

Hishammuddin said a total of 2,622 Malaysian citizens are serving jail sentences in 59 countries around the world. — Bernama