Islamabad: Pakistan's foreign affairs ministry on Thursday said that more than 12,000 Pakistani citizens are in prisons in other nations, Pakistan-based The Express Tribune reported. Pakistan's foreign affairs ministry shared the details of the Pakistanis imprisoned in foreign jails in the lower house of parliament.

As per the news report, the majority of these prisoners of them are in Arab nations. Pakistan's foreign affairs ministry in the statistics presented in the lower house of parliament said that around 6,200 Pakistani citizens are incarcerated in the prisons in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, The Express Tribune reported.

According to the documents, a total of 1,612 Pakistani citizens are incarcerated in the prisons of Abu Dhabi, 1,596 in Riyadh, 1,504 in Jeddah, and 1,488 in Dubai. According to the documents, 811 Pakistanis were imprisoned in Greece, 329 in Turkey, 672 in Iraq, 275 in the UK, and 209 in Qatar.

The papers further revealed that 239 Pakistanis were imprisoned in China, 115 in Spain, 98 in the US, 208 in Manama, 151 in Malaysia, 13 in Afghanistan, 21 in Maldives, 119 in Germany, 115 in Spain, 94 in Sri Lanka, 55 in Kuwait, 44 in Australia, 32 in Denmark, 12 in Jordan and eight in Nigeria, according to The Express Tribune report.

A large number of Pakistanis imprisoned in Saudi jails are convicted or accused of drug smuggling. These people are the hardest to set free as the majority of them have been caught with drugs, The Express Tribune reported.

Many young people in Pakistan have been migrating to European nations considering the rising prices in the countries. At least 350 Pakistan citizens were on onboard an overloaded boat that capsized and sank in open seas off Greece in June, the reports said.

The fishing boat which had a capacity of 400 people was carrying more than 700 people when it sank on June 14, Pakistan Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said in parliament. He further said that 281 families had contacted the government asking for help, The Express Tribune reported.

Pakistan has said that it had arrested several human traffickers and their agents. According to the authorities, these human traffickers had charged around USD 8,000 a person to take them to Europe illegally through the sea route after flying legally to Dubai, Egypt and Libya.