DHAKA, June 11: Some 5000 Bangladeshis have been languishing in foreign jails, mostly in the Middle Eastern countries, home ministry informed the cabinet committee on jail reforms on Sunday. Many of the Bangladeshi prisoners have been staying in the jails for a long time, as they are not getting any legal support either from the Bangladeshi missions abroad or non-governmental organisations working with those countries, sources in the ministry said.

A cabinet committee on jail reforms at a meeting on Sunday asked the foreign ministry to place in the next meeting an updated figure of the Bangladeshi citizens detained in the foreign jails.

“Measures are under way to provide the Bangladeshi prisoners abroad with legal support through our missions and NGOs working there,” law, justice, and parliamentary affairs minister Moudud Ahmed told reporters after the meeting.