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© Getty Images
News March 14, 2023


JAPAN: ‘ENDLESS DETENTION’: MIGRANTS SPEAK OUT AS GOVERNMENT PROPOSES HARSH
IMMIGRATION BILL

Ahead of the Japanese government’s latest attempt to push through repressive
legislation that will reinforce its powers to detain migrants indefinitely,
asylum seekers and others have spoken out about the inherent cruelty of the
country’s immigration system.

More than 30 migrants and asylum seekers interviewed for a new piece of Amnesty
International research, some of whom have been held for several years, said
harsh immigration detention conditions and policies had driven some detainees to
undertake hunger strikes and even attempt suicide.

Their stories come as Japan’s parliament considers a new amendment to the
refugee and immigration law that would undermine migrant rights.

“Migrants have painted a grim picture of what it’s like to claim refugee status
in Japan. Far from being helped in their hour of need, they speak of being
subjected to arbitrary, endless detention in prison-like immigration
facilities,” said Hideaki Nakagawa, Director of Amnesty International Japan.

“Their testimonies make clear that Japan’s immigration detention system needs
reform, but instead the Japanese authorities are attempting to pass an amendment
bill that will enable them to carry on detaining asylum seekers and other
irregular migrants by default.”


SECOND ATTEMPT TO PASS IMMIGRATION BILL

The Japanese government is set to imminently reintroduce an amendment bill to
the country’s Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, which allows the
authorities to detain irregular migrants indefinitely. This includes people who
enter to seek asylum or attempt to seek asylum after entering the country.

The bill maintains a system of default detention, which is arbitrary and a
violation of international law.

The government initially submitted the amendment bill in February 2021, but
withdrew it amid a public outcry over the death of a 33-year-old Sri Lankan
asylum seeker, Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali, in immigration detention the
following month.

She was denied medical treatment despite repeatedly complaining about being in
pain. She wrote numerous applications to see a doctor and asked for “provisional
release”. Her handwriting in the very last application was scarcely legible.

An internal investigation in August 2022 found that officers intentionally
denied her request for provisional release and, in a report investigating her
death, it was revealed that officers believed that she was faking her illness to
get out.  The report found that the officer denied her request for provisional
release “to make her understand her situation”.

The bill could be passed any time during the current parliament session, which
is scheduled to run until June.

> From when we wake up, we are treated like animals.
> 
> Detainee at Ushiku detention centre

Amnesty International’s research is based on interviews with current and former
immigration facility detainees, carried out in October and November 2022.
Amnesty International also had meetings with officers from the Immigration
Services Agency under the Ministry of Justice and NGO members working on
immigration detention.

The interviews documented several human rights violations, including arbitrary
and indefinite detention, ill-treatment by immigration officers including
beatings and the use of solitary confinement, and inadequate medical care.

Japan’s refugee acceptance rate is by far the lowest of any G20 nation, with 74
applications accepted in 2021 and more than 10,000 believed to have been
rejected – indicating a success rate of less than 1%.  


DENIAL OF ASYLUM, DENIAL OF FREEDOM

The word ‘Choubatsu’ came up repeatedly in interviews with detainees and former
detainees. The word, which is equivalent to ‘punishment’ in English, is
routinely used by immigration officers to punish detainees on the spot for some
act they have committed. Those punished are often locked up in conditions that
may amount to solitary confinement.

A Nepalese former detainee said he experienced physical abuse from officers and
was placed in a ‘punishment room’ after he refused to stop an exercise session
to speak to them.

“Dozens of staff members came to the scene and after being beaten and slapped, I
was taken to the isolation room. I had no memory afterwards and when I came to,
about six hours had passed. I also experienced isolation on a number of
occasions, simply because I told them that this treatment was wrong in terms of
medical care and food.”

Despite the immigration authorities’ statement that they were working to improve
medical care after Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali‘s death, none of the
detainees interviewed by Amnesty International said they had experienced any
improvement in medical care after the investigation into her death.

One man, from Somalia, said: “From when we wake up, we are treated like animals.
There is nowhere to study, nowhere to learn. There is nothing for us to do. When
you stay here, your brain is washed.”


HUNGER STRIKES AND SUICIDE ATTEMPTS

One of the few ways for detainees to leave immigration centres is to secure a
temporary “provisional release”. However, it is rarely granted and the process
for doing so is arbitrary due to a lack of clear criteria for eligibility.

Even those who are released are unable to enjoy their basic rights as they have
no financial support or ability to work, and no access to medical insurance or
any kind of public assistance. Despite this, detainees said many people would
take extreme measures to attempt to secure provisional release.

“The only way to get out of the immigration detention centre was to get sick or
go on a hunger strike to the point of death,” one detainee said. “And even if
you were allowed out on provisional release, you were only allowed out for two
weeks, during which time you had to recover from your illness.”

The Immigration Service says there has been one ‘starvation death’ in the past
five years.

> These people’s stories highlight the need for the Japanese government to
> abolish automatic and prolonged immigration detention.
> 
> Hideaki Nakagawa, Amnesty International Japan

According to Amnesty International’s interviews, some detainees had witnessed
suicide attempts of fellow detainees, while one respondent had attempted suicide
themselves. Individuals reported witnessing attempted hangings or asphyxiation,
overdoses of medications, the drinking of detergent and, in one case, a man
cutting his own throat.

One detainee said: “I saw a person who tried to cut his throat in an attempt to
kill himself. I saw many other people who had taken [swallowed] detergent in an
attempt to kill themselves.”

On 18 November 2022, an Italian man in his 50s died at the Tokyo Immigration
Bureau, apparently having taken his own life by hanging himself with a
television power cord. The man’s provisional release permit had recently been
revoked.

According to reports, 17 people have died in immigration facilities since 2007,
and this was the sixth suicide.

“These people’s stories highlight the need for the Japanese government to
abolish automatic and prolonged immigration detention. Any detention utilized
must be for the shortest time possible, and it must be free from any cruel,
inhuman, or degrading treatment,” Hideaki Nakagawa said.

“Detainees should have the right to appeal the conditions, legality and length
of detention, and receive adequate and prompt medical care in detention. The
bill amendment proposed by the Japanese government achieves none of these
things, and it must be scrapped and replaced with a law that treats asylum
seekers and irregular migrants with dignity.”


BACKGROUND

Under international human rights law, migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers must
benefit from a legal presumption of liberty. If they are subject to any
deprivation of liberty, this must be clearly prescribed by law, strictly
justified by a legitimate purpose, necessary, proportionate, and
non-discriminatory.

The UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has noted that
the indefinite detention associated with immigration control violates the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). It also found that
Japan’s detention policy constituted arbitrary detention, and that the lack of
opportunity for judicial review violated the ICCPR.


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