Extreme Flight

More than three hundred convicts were repatriated by a charter flight. This is believed to be an extreme flight in history, for its carrying of 339 special passengers, 284 of whom are male and the other 55 are female, from Thailand to Nigeria. What these passengers have in common is that they are all Nigerian, they are convicts of drug crimes, they have spent a period time behind bars in Thailand, and most importantly, they are overwhelmed with happiness to return to their hometown. 

This is definitely not the first time that a prisoner has been transferred back to his home country. Thailand has operated international transfer of prisoners for over a decade. So far, bilateral transfer treaties between Thailand and more than 20 countries have been negotiated and ratified. However, Nigeria is the first country in Africa to sign a transfer treaty with Thailand. Since the treaty’s entering into force in November 2002, all parties have tried with every effort to make the transfer of Nigerian prisoners possible.

Questions that have always been asked:

·        What is the average sentence term of these Nigerian Prisoners?

·        How long have they served their time in Thailand?

·        Where do they go after the repatriation, prison or directly home?

Let’s clear the last question first. The transfer of prisoners is to facilitate the rehabilitation of the prisoners in their home country; so that they can receive visits from their loved ones more easily and that they can get access to appropriate rehabilitation program of their own culture. The law enforcement shall continue while Nigeria as a receiving country is empowered to manage the remaining sentence time as regularly practiced in the transferring country. 

As for the first question, the sentence term of these prisoners varies. It is widely recognized that, in Thailand, drug dealers or smugglers receive the highest punishment. Among these three hundred Nigerian prisoners, there is only one with the least sentence term of 6 years. The rest have higher terms, some of which are as high as 100 years. Among these convicts, 149 of them are sentenced to life imprisonment while 17 have the death penalty. However, all of them have served their time in Thailand for quite a while and most have received term commutation from the Collective Royal Pardon in some important occasions of the country. Consequently, as of the date of transfer, there were none from death row, 18 lifers, and the rest with certain sentence periods from 80 years to lower, the lowest one was with 6-year imprisonment. 

Now comes the question that one would like to know: How long have these prisoners served their time before being repatriated? The information shall be roughly given in years. One may simply multiply by 365, and shall imagine how days have slowly passed inside those four square walls. One might also calculate the expense that the Thai government has spent for these prisoners as well as many other prisoners in Thai prisons. Think also about foreign prisoners whose countries do not have bilateral transfer treaties with Thailand and how they shall have to pass countless nights and days in despair.

Here is the information about the time spent in prisons before the transfer of Nigerian prisoners:

- Prisoners having served 4 – 7 years                17        persons

- Prisoners having served 8 years                      26        persons

- Prisoners having served 9 years                      30        persons

- Prisoners having served 10 years                    77        persons

- Prisoners having served 11 years                    64        persons

- Prisoners having served 12 years                    108      persons

- Prisoners having served 13 years                    12        persons

- Prisoners having served 14 years                    1          persons

Even though the destination of this flight would still be four square walls, every prisoner is willing to accept it. There is no place like home. At the same time, Thailand is also pleased that the heavy burden of incarcerating these high-sentenced prisoners has been lessened at certain level.

Caption:

Female Nigerian prisoners, in native dress, prepare to return home.