The UAE and Pakistan have signed a prisoner treaty deal allowing convicts with a six month sentence or more to serve the remainder of their jail term in their home country, the UAE’s state news agency has said.

The deal is expected to affect around 1,400 Pakistanis currently incarcerated in UAE jails, according to the Pakistan Embassy. It is not yet known how many Emiratis are serving time in jail in Pakistan.

The UAE/Pakistan agreement follows just months after the Gulf state signed a similar treaty with India. Officials from both countries in November signed a prisoner-exchange deal, allowing prisoners to serve the remainder of their sentence in their home country.

India’s Ambassador to the UAE, MK Lokesh, said there are 1,200 Indian prisoners serving in UAE jails and one Emirati jailed in India.

The Gulf plays host to millions of migrants, primarily from Asia, who account for the majority of blue-collar workers in the construction, domestic work, and service industries.

An estimated three million migrate each year, sending back an estimated $175bn in remittances annually, according to Human Rights Watch data.

The six GCC states employ around 15 million guest workers, according to World Bank figures. The UAE alone is home to an estimated 1.75 million Indian expatriates, the largest group of foreign workers in the Gulf country.