Bangladesh's prisons are holding at least 407 foreign nationals from 15 countries, including 172 people who have finished their sentences or are otherwise eligible for release but remain in custody because no country has taken them back, prison authorities say.

The largest group is Indian: 238 prisoners, of whom 168 have completed their terms but are still detained, according to figures The Daily Star published on Friday, citing prison officials. Myanmar is second with 133 prisoners, 33 of the 44 foreigners convicted and jailed. Only one Myanmar national is waiting to be repatriated.

The figures expose a gap between Dhaka's records and the Indian mission's. An official in the consular wing of the High Commission of India in Dhaka told the newspaper that only 25 Indians whose sentences are over have been verified and are awaiting return. Bangladesh's foreign ministry has sent lists naming 121 prisoners as Indians who have completed their sentences, but the official said the personal details for most of them are not enough to confirm Indian nationality.

"The HCI is awaiting a response from the foreign ministry," the official said, adding that consular access has been requested for prisoners whose records are too thin to verify and that checks are continuing where more information exists. The mission has asked Dhaka to speed up returns and to give proposed repatriation dates well in advance so Indian authorities can prepare.

Masud Hasan Jewel, the jailer for media and logistics, said the obstacle is clearance from the prisoners' own countries. "They cannot return because clearance from the respective countries has not arrived," he told The Daily Star. Prison authorities say they keep the Home Ministry informed, send names and addresses to the embassies in Dhaka and route letters through the foreign ministry, but responses are inadequate.

Besides Indians and Myanmar nationals, the foreign prison population includes six Nigerians; three each from Pakistan and Malaysia; two each from Tanzania and Peru; and one each from Georgia, the Bahamas, Belarus, Guyana, Congo, Ethiopia and Thailand. Of the 407, 44 are convicts, 191 are awaiting trial and 172 are in the repatriation category. No convict in the group is under a death sentence, prison sources said.

The foreign prisoners were held on charges including drug and human trafficking, gold smuggling, fraud, counterfeit dollar trading, passport offences and illegal VoIP operations. Officials say foreign inmates are kept in separate cells for security, with CCTV watching the area outside their wards. Keeping people after their terms end ties up staff and adds to costs, they say.

The problem is not new. In June, the news agency PTI reported that 148 of 152 foreign prisoners awaiting repatriation after completing their sentences were Indians, based on prison statistics six months old at the time. In 2024, the High Court ordered the government to send home 157 foreigners who had stayed in jail beyond their terms. The issue returned to public attention after six Chinese nationals were arrested at a Cox's Bazar hotel on 4 September over alleged online fraud; in January, the cyber unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Detective Branch arrested eight people, five of them Chinese, on similar allegations.

What remains unclear is how many of the 238 Indians are genuinely Indian, how long each has been held beyond sentence, and which countries have simply not replied. Bangladesh has not published a prisoner-by-prisoner breakdown. The Myanmar embassy in Dhaka did not respond to emailed questions from The Daily Star.

The next step rests with the foreign ministry: whether it grants the Indian mission access to the prisoners it says it cannot identify, and whether it sets dates for the 25 already verified. For the prisoners, the wait continues inside cells in a country that says it has finished punishing them but cannot yet let them leave.