Hanging by a thread: Nimisha Priya’s case spotlights plight of Indian migrants jailed overseas

Over 10,000 Indians are currently in foreign prisons, over 60% of them in Gulf countries. India has helplines and welfare funds but campaigners call for more proactive action

Rejimon Kuttappan

A file picture of Nimisha Priya

Thiruvananthapuram, KERALA: Samuel Jerome, an Indian social activist in Yemen, heaved a sigh of relief on Tuesday July 15 when Yemeni authorities postponed the execution of Nimisha Priya, an Indian nurse convicted of murdering a Yemeni national. The execution, initially scheduled for July 16, was deferred following ongoing clemency efforts by Indian authorities and migrant rights activists, both in Yemen and India, said Jerome.

Speaking to The Migration Story from Yemen, Jerome, who has been coordinating Priya’s rescue efforts from the beginning, said the victim’s family has not shown any compassionate gestures yet as efforts intensify to fetch Priya a pardon.

Priya stands accused of murdering Talal Abdo Mahdi, a Yemeni national. Mahdi’s dismembered body was found in a water tank in July 2017. A native of Kerala, Priya was working as a nurse in Yemen at the time. She has denied the charges.

Subash Chandran, legal advisor to the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, - a collective of campaigners fighting for Priya’s release - told The Migration Story that after initial, unsuccessful attempts to contact the family of the deceased Yemeni national, they had managed to speak to a few family members, including one who is part of the Yemeni judiciary.

While campaigner Jerome told television news channel NDTV that they were seeking a pardon from the Yemeni national’s family for Priya and “there is no money deal at all” that was being discussed, lawyer Chandran said “discussions regarding blood money were ongoing”. 

“Some younger members of the family remain uncooperative. Still, we are hopeful," Chandran told The Migration Story on Wednesday. 

Lawyer Chandran is also representing Priya’s petition in India’s Supreme Court and played a key role in facilitating her mother’s visit to Yemen as part of ongoing clemency efforts.

Priya’s husband and daughter had been living with her in Yemen but when the civil war broke out in 2014, they returned to India along with around 4000 other Indians who fled the country at that time with the help of the Indian government.

Priya chose to stay back as she was planning to set up a clinic there, according to members of the Save Nimisha Action Council.

In 2017, the Indian government imposed restrictions on its citizens for travel to Yemen, which were eased in 2019.

Priya’s mother, Prema Kumari, was allowed to travel to Yemen only after she approached the Supreme Court in 2023. She continues to be in Yemen.

In 2020, a Yemeni court sentenced Priya to death. Her appeal challenging the verdict in the Appeal Court in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, was dismissed on March 7, 2022. She then approached the Yemeni Supreme Judicial Council, but it too rejected her appeal in November 2023.

Last Monday, the Indian government told the Supreme Court that “there’s not much the government can do”, prompting the court to respond, “It’s very sad” if she were to lose her life.

In addition to Jerome, Indian spiritual leaders in India and Yemen have also been engaged in negotiations with Yemeni religious leaders to help secure Priya's release.

The order dated July 15 deferring Nimisha Priya’s execution

Shaikh Abubakr Ahmad, the Grand Mufti of India (a senior Islamic leader), who is based in Kerala, has been negotiating with Yemeni authorities and religious leaders for Priya’s release, posted a document on his official Facebook page on July 15 stating that her execution had been postponed until further notice.

Priya’s case, however, is just one amongst many.

49 INDIANS ON DEATH ROW

The Indian government in March 2025 tabled a document in the Indian Parliament stating that 49 Indian nationals are currently on death row in foreign countries and languishing in prisons.

According to the document, of them, 25 are in jails in the UAE, 11 in Saudi Arabia, six in Malaysia, three in Kuwait, and one each in Qatar, the United States, Indonesia, and Yemen.

Data shared in the Indian parliament note reveals that in 2024, three Indians were executed in Saudi Arabia, three in Kuwait, and one in Zimbabwe

In 2023, five Indians were executed in Kuwait, five in Saudi Arabia, three in Zimbabwe, and one in Malaysia, according to official data. In 2022, eight Indians were executed in Kuwait, three in Zimbabwe, one in Saudi Arabia, and one in Jamaica. The year 2021 saw four executions—all in Kuwait—while in 2020, four Indians were executed in Malaysia.

Of the 15 million non-resident Indians, a little over nine million are employed in the Middle East and North Africa region — including Yemen and the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries — where access to justice remains a persistent challenge for ordinary migrant workers.

A separate document attached to the Indian parliament note reveals that 10,152 Indians are currently in foreign prisons, over 60% of them in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. 

In 2024, the Indian embassies in the six GCC countries received a total of 12,739 complaints, with Kuwait reporting the highest number at 3,728. This amounts to an average of 34 complaints per day. 

In comparison, 20,386 complaints were recorded in 2023 — an average of 55 per day. In 2022, the total number of complaints stood at 13,426.

The Ministry of External Affairs in February informed the Parliament that it has implemented a range of measures to support Indian migrant workers in the Middle East. These include dedicated embassy helplines, grievance redressal mechanisms, and emergency assistance through the Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF).

"From 2019 to 2024, thousands of workers sought help for issues such as legal troubles, medical emergencies, and repatriation," the ministry stated. In 2024 alone, over ₹12 crore was disbursed from the ICWF to support distressed Indian nationals abroad.

But more needs to be done, said parliamentarians from Kerala, the southern Indian state that has for decades recorded heavy migration to the Gulf countries.

Shafi Parambil, Member of Parliament from Kerala, said timely legal assistance is not provided to victims during the crucial initial stages of a case, which often worsens the situation.

Hibi Eden, another Member of Parliament from Kerala, said that it is mostly poor domestic workers, especially women, and low-paid laborers who end up getting “trapped” in civil and criminal cases and subsequently jailed in foreign soil.

“Unfortunately, when such arrests and imprisonments occur, the Indian embassies and the officials in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi often fail to ensure access to justice for the victims. In many instances, it is civil society organizations or charity groups that step in, take up the cases, and follow through,” Eden said.

An email has been sent to the Ministry of External Affairs seeking a response. The story will be updated once a reply is received.

KAFALA SYSTEM

Arab Gulf countries follow an exploitative labour system called the kafala , which ties migrant workers to their employers as the employers hold back travel documents mainly their passports, which restricts their movement and prevents them from leaving work or returning to their home country. This system makes it difficult for migrant workers to leave their jobs or change employers, and it increases the risk of forced labour and modern-day slavery.

But only a few complaints finally get registered at embassies in the GCC nations said Hubertson Tom Wilson, an Indian migrant rights activist and pro-bono lawyer based in the UAE.

He attributed this to restrictions on the movement of workers, difficulty in approaching the Indian embassy, lack of awareness about how to file a complaint, and language barriers. A majority of cases and complaints remain undocumented, he said.

While pro-bono lawyers are empanelled with the embassies, response time to complaints is often sluggish, Wilson said. 

In February, Shahzadi Khan, an Indian domestic worker employed by an Indian couple, was executed after being convicted of killing her employers' baby.

She was executed on February 15, however, the Indian authorities confirmed the news only on March 3 after Shahzadi's parents filed a petition in the Delhi High Court seeking information about their daughter.

Speaking to The Migration Story, Prasad Krishna, an Indian lawyer based in the UAE, said many cases get derailed simply because the victims cannot afford to fight a legal battle in these countries.

DISTRESS FUND

According to an official document from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, Indian embassies maintain the Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) to provide essential assistance— including legal aid— to Indian citizens abroad and their dependents, based on their pleas. 

The support covers various forms of distress, including the transportation of mortal remains to India, local cremation with the family's consent, and the settlement of death claims.

Between 2014 and March 2024, Indian missions and posts abroad utilized approximately ₹656 crore from the Fund, extending assistance to around 3,50,194 Indian nationals.

Members of the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, which was formed to lend help for Nimish Priya by migrant rights activists and lawyers -  are exploring options to negotiate and pay "blood money" to the family of the deceased Yemeni national in an effort to save Nimisha's life and seek mercy. 

"Blood money" refers to financial compensation paid to the family of a deceased person, often in cases of accidental or intentional killing. In some legal systems, particularly under Islamic law, it can serve as an alternative to capital punishment, allowing the victim's family to forgive the offender in exchange for payment.

(Rejimon Kuttappan is an independent journalist, labour migration expert and author of Undocumented, Penguin-2021.)