NCRB: West Bengal's jails house the most foreigners

KOLKATA: West Bengal houses the highest number of foreign prisoners in the country. As many as 2,508, or 36%, of India’s 6,956 foreign prisoners are lodged in the state’s correctional homes, according to ‘ Prison Statistics of India 2023’, released by the National Crime Records Bureau .

As many as 89% of the foreigners detained in Bengal’s prisons, mostly Bangladeshis, have been prosecuted for illegally entering India.

Foreigners make up 9% of Bengal’s total prison population of 25,774. Of the Bangladeshis lodged here, 778 are convicts and 1,440 undertrials. Myanmar takes second spot. Most undertrials are between 18 and 30 years of age.

Of 796 convicted foreigners in Bengal’s prisons, 204 are women
With more than half of the 4,906-km-long India-Bangladesh border falling in Bengal, the state has had to lodge a large percentage of foreign prisoners. While there were 796 foreign convicts in the state’s jails in 2023, there were 1,499 undertrials.

In fact, NCRB data points to the fact that the country’s prisons have been housing more and more undertrials.

According to a legal aid counsel, the rise in undertrial numbers has multiple reasons, including being unable to afford a counsel, absence of jurisdiction benches, and already overburdened trial courts.

“Illegal Bangladeshi detainees are pushed back on the orders of the Foreigners Regional Registration Office . In Bengal, however, deportation remains abysmally low, despite our repeated pleas,” a senior state official said.


Bengal’s prisons are overcrowded, with the occupancy rate being 120% in 2023. As many as 60 prisons, with a total capacity of 21,476, housed 25,774 inmates (nationals and foreigners). The only women’s jail in the state had an occupancy rate of 110.2%. Of the 796 foreign national convicts in Bengal’s prisons, 204 are women and 12 transgender persons.

In the case of undertrials, there were 371 women and nine transgender persons out of 1,499 inmates.