Desperate pleas to be transferred from a Thai jail to prisons in South Africa have been made by convicted drug runners. "My plea is that I may find mercy from my fellow countrymen in the way of a treaty or prisoner transfer agreement being put in place between Thailand and South Africa," Nolubabalo "Druglocks" Nobanda, originally from Grahamstown, wrote.Nobanda was arrested at an airport in Thailand on December 11 2011 after she was found to have narcotics hidden in her dreadlocks.Aged 23 at the time, Nobanda - dubbed "Druglocks" by the media - was recruited as a drug mule in Port Elizabeth.Her plea, along with those of her 10 compatriots jailed in Thailand, has been included in a petition in which the South African government is asked to enter into a prisoner-transfer agreement with Thailand so that prisoners can be repatriated to serve their sentence closer to their families.The petition, addressed to "Members of Parliament of the Republic of South Africa", was written on behalf of the prisoners by Thailand-based Henk Vanstaen, who has been assisting prisoners in that country for many years.Vanstaen said: "Recently the Thai government extended an invitation to all foreign embassies who have citizens incarcerated in Thailand to enter into prisoner-transfer agreements."To date, 37 countries have accepted this invitation ..."Vanstaen said such a "humanitarian gesture" would be in keeping with South Africa's constitution and its correctional services policies.He said it was thought that 30% of the South Africans in jail in Thailand had been wrongly convicted and should be regarded as victims of human trafficking.The appeals of Nobanda and of other prisoners abroad are unlikely to succeed.The Department of International Relations and Co-operation said: "No prisoner-transfer agreements exist between South Africa and any other country."And, according to a director of the South African prisoners' rights organisation Locked Up, Patricia Gerber: "South Africa is just one of two countries in the whole world which does not have or recognise prisoner-transfer agreements."Department of International Relations and Co-operation spokesman Clayson Monyela brushed off all inquiries about the Thai prisoners' petition."Ask Correctional Services," was his only response.Repeated attempts to get comment from Correctional Services yesterday were unsuccessful...