Twelve Australians jailed in Indonesia – including convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby – could soon be eligible to return home with a landmark deal believed to have been struck between the two nations.

Indonesian laws and human rights minister Hamid Awaluddin said Indonesia had reached agreement with Australia to swap prisoners, but did not say who would be eligible under the scheme.

At this point, Indonesian and Australian government are in a stage of agreement to swap prisoners from each countries. Realisation will be after (the Islamic holiday) Lebaran, Hamid told the Rakyak Merdeka newspaper.

Fifty-seven Indonesian prisoners in custody in Australia would be sent back home under the deal, and 12 Australians, he said.

The Indonesian Laws and Human Rights department's Sukartono Supangat said the agreement covered Australian prisoners in custody for drugs and paedophile matters in Bali.

He confirmed Corby would be one of the Australians under consideration. However, it is unclear whether Corby would take up such an offer.

In August Corby's lawyer, Erwin Siregar, rejected the possibility of her transfer back to Australia to serve the rest of her 20-year drug smuggling conviction. At the time, Siregar said his client was not interested in the prisoner exchange deal as she wanted to return to Australia "a free woman".

It was not clear how much of their sentence prisoners would need to serve before being repatriated to their home countries.

Supangat said there was still a long process ahead, despite the agreement. "It's a long process. Its only a first round agreement," he told AAP. "After this has been agreed, then it must pass as legislation in parliament. Then, there's technical regulation on that. So, there's still a long time to go."

The Indonesian prisoners to be repatriated were mostly those in custody on immigration and illegal fishing matters.