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Heather Charema Herald Reporter
A total of 345 foreigners are being held in Zimbabwean jails for immigration offences and other crimes, a senior prisons official says. Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services Chief Superintendent Elizabeth Banda told The Herald yesterday that out 345 foreigners in the country’s jails, 233 were awaiting deportation at the end of their sentences, 90 were serving their sentences while 22 were still on trial.
Most of the foreigners in jails include those from Ethiopia, Botswana, Burundi, Rwanda, DRC, Malawi, Somalia, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Britain and Sierra Leone.
She said foreigners were incarcerated for various criminal offences and were being held for varying periods.
The increase in the number of foreign prisoners was a huge burden to the country’s overstretched prison services, she said.
“The longer foreign inmates stay in local prisons the more they become a burden on our already strained budget,” said Chief Supt Banda.
“We have always engaged relevant departments such as the Immigration Department as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a view to ensuring speedy deportation of prohibited immigrants within our custody.”
Half of the world’s prison population of about nine million is held in the US, China or Russia.
Prison rates in the US are the world’s highest, at 724 people per 100 000. In Russia the rate is 581.
At 145 per 100 000, the imprisonment rate of England and Wales is at about the midpoint worldwide.
Many of the lowest rates are in developing countries, but overcrowding is a serious problem.
Online Reporter