With no family in India, 44 Somali pirates seek first-ever transfer home under India treaty

3 min readJul 28, 2026 11:12 AM IST A week after a Mumbai special court sentenced 44 Somali pirates to life imprisonment, the convicts have moved Indian and Somali authorities seeking a transfer to serve out their sentences in Somalia, under the 2017 India-Somalia Agreement on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons. If approved, they would be the first prisoners transferred under the bilateral treaty, which lets nationals convicted in either country serve their sentences at home, subject to consent from both governments and treaty conditions.The representations, filed a day after the conviction, went to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the Embassy of Somalia in India and Somali authorities. The convicts, lodged in Taloja Central Jail, moved the a