Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Around 50 people from various labor movements gathered in front of the Shinagawa Immigration Detention Center on Sunday to protest the death of a young Sri Lankan woman in the Nagoya Detention Center in March 2021 after she was refused medical care.

The protesters surrounded the immigration office, which houses a detention center for illegal immigrants before they are deported to their countries of origin. Protesters criticized the fact that during the holiday period – until December 28 – inmates cannot receive visits from their families.

Protesters shouted slogans saying all detainees should be released. After the demonstration, the anti-detention group addressed the detainees with loudspeakers and signs.

Various associations helping detainees regularly denounce the conditions of detention and deportation from Japanese territory. The immigration services alone decide on the conditions for granting or withdrawing visas and enforcing deportations. There’s little or no recourse to the justice system and lawyers.

Some detainees are imprisoned for several years without being expelled from the country for lack of an extradition agreement between the country of origin and Japan.  Others, after serving sentences in Japanese prisons, face double sentences, sometimes having to stay in the detention center for several years, and some inmates have killed themselves.

The death of Wishma, a 33-year-old Sri Lankan woman, after being refused medical care has enraged those opposed to the system and embarrassed the government.  

The Minister of Justice initially refused to reveal the circumstances of her death and it was only after considerablepressure from the family and lawyers that the administration in charge of immigration finally let the family access some of thedetention center video tapes.

Japan’s new prime minister, Fumio Kishida, pledged at a press conference during his inauguration to work for the manifestation of the truth.  Anti-detention associations continue to blame Kishida for the harshness of Japan’s immigration policy.

Since 1997, 27 detainees have died in detention centers for migrants in Japan.