The Standing Committee on Security and
Foreign Policy has unanimously approved the proposed agreement between Mongolia
and China to send convicted prisoners to their home countries. Mongolia already
has a similar agreement with Canada and South Korea. Once the agreement is
concluded, the exchange of prisoners can start within three months.

The committee wanted the terms of the
agreement to be clear about who will bear the transportation costs of those
returning to their home country to serve their sentence and if an appropriate
amount paid as monetary fine will be acceptable in lieu of a prison term.  R.Gonchigdorj said Mongolians in Chinese
jails can hardly be expected to pay for their return home as most of them went
to China in the first place to earn some money.

Mongolia does not have a similar formal
agreement with Russia but the two countries have often sent prisoners back to
their home country. This practice is not followed in all cases, however. The
proposed agreement with China will have to be discussed with officials of that
country.