REFUGEE? JAPAN NO PLACE FOR REFUGE
KEYWORDS: IMMIGRATION, REFUGEE

“I came to Japan because I thought the people would be warm-hearted. It was my big mistake. I should have gone to another country.”
Kurd refugee

The message is loud and clear from Japan, in words but more so in acts. If you are an international refugee, go somewhere else. Actually, the lesson has been well learned. Other countries which opened their doors have been swamped with people claiming to be refugees. Unfortunately, people who truly deserve to be treated as refugees are the big losers round the world. People from poor nations seek, for economic reasons, to maneuver themselves into richer nations. Just as Americans strive to find a better paying job, people from poor nations strive to find themselves a richer nation. Once in, then they maneuver to start bringing in their relatives until finally you have nations which suddenly have large minorities from these countries. Europe certainly comes to mind. Canada as well. The US, long a nation of immigrants, has at least got some expertise in this area but you can bet people from nations wearing Osama bin Laden T-shirts find an icy cold reception.

JAPAN BASICALLY JUST DOES NOT LET THEM IN. Human rights advocates complain about people held in immigration detention centers  for indeterminate periods of time. Japan has often complained about being a small, mountainous country with a high population density. Many European nations fall in the same category. But look at Europe. Many complain that Japan’s rapidly aging population needs a good injection of immigrants. Nippon Keidanren, Japan’s biggest association of business interests, has even demanded that more foreign workers be brought in. But Japan appears to be deciding that it is better to retain its homogeneity over the problems posed by large immigrant populations. That may reduce the risk from terrorist ridden groups from the Middle East, but in Japan’s case its real dangers come from supporters of North Korea and China and there are already large numbers of Koreans, descendants from those dragooned into Japan during the war, and who have faced discriminatory treatment in Japan, not cruel, maybe not even severe, but indeed discriminatory. One large group is in fact a major economic support of the North Korean regime. The Chinese are everywhere and are at heart the center of the immigration crackdown now ongoing.

REFUGEES. Lets start with the basic statistics. They are atrocious. In 2003 Japan granted refugee status to 10 people. Eight of those from Myanmar, which most people would agree is certainly a country from which refugees justifiably  flee. In contrast, in 2003 Japan detained 523,617 people at its immigration detention centers, an average of 1,435 per day. This is not a swelling huge jail population. Most are held only a short time and shipped right back where they came from. But the detainees kept for a long time are mostly on indefinite stays. Immigration authorities mostly keep them clueless. That is one of the key complaints. Human rights advocates says it creates a feeling of hopelessness, one of the factors for the large number of suicides by such detainees. Many detainees report being abused. Amnesty International complained about abuses in interrogation and deportation by Japanese immigration officials in a 2002 report. A United Nations Commission on Human Rights called Japan’s handling of asylum seekers a violation of international human rights law. Japanese human rights lawyers representing 50 immigration detainees, mostly Kurdish and Burmese (Myanmar) some held more than two years, filed criminal charges against the head of the Higashi-Nihon Immigration center and the guards there, alleging assaults and injuries. Two dozen Vietnamese detainees at the West Japan Immigration Center went on hunger strike as some of them have been held over two years. They charged rough treatment by the guards and solitary confinement. One detainee at the center committed suicide. The family of one Vietnamese detained filed a complaint at the Osaka District Public Prosecutor’s office about the same immigration center, complaining that when their relative was deported she was handcuffed, tied up with rope, gagged and her mouth sealed with duct tape. Suicide attempts at the same center have reportedly topped 23 cases.

On the other hand, two Tunisians who filed a court case over rough treatment at their detention at Narita International Airport were awarded 1.1 million yen by the Tokyo District Court which ordered a security company president and three of its security guard employees to pay.

But the Tokyo High Court overturned a decision by the Tokyo District Court ordering the government to pay 9.5 million yen in damages to a Myanmar man for rejecting his petition for refugee status and detaining him. The high court held that the burden was on the defendant to prove persecution in their home country. It also takes time to follow up on such investigations.

One case that got a lot of media attention, as it often does in Japan, involved a cute young girl. A 13 year old Thai girl. This young lady unfortunately had both of her parents die in Thailand. She was brought to Japan by her grandmother who had married a Japanese gentleman. The Japanese husband also adopted the young Thai girl. But the Japanese government has refused to give her permanent residence status. In a dramatic manner, as the last days of her visa approached, the government gave her a one year visa. This is likely to continue for a number of years. At some point she will probably become permanent, probably by marrying a Japanese man.

Likewise a 16 year old Filipina girl, was permitted to stay in Japan by the Tokyo District Court but said her parents who entered illegally 18 years ago and her younger siblings would have to be deported back to the Philippines. The court said she had lived most of her life in Japan, making it difficult for her to adjust to the Philippines. Her younger siblings too young to look after themselves and had to go back with their parents. Being born in Japan does not grant citizenship.

The Nagoya District Court gave a Turkish Kurd refugee status after being rejected by the immigration authorities. Of 400 Kurds seeking refugee status in Japan, immigration authorities have granted it to none.

On the other hand, the Nagoya District Court rejected the request for overturning the deportation order against two Afghan men.

After losing their case before the courts to stop their deportation, a Myanmar-Filipina couple with two Japan born children had their deportation suspended temporarily by the direct intervention of the Minister of Justice. Although released from detention, they were not permitted to work. Shortly after that, another Myanmar-Filipina couple with a Japan born child also filed suit with the Tokyo District Court, to seek to stop their deportation.

Things do not look too promising as the Tokyo High Court in 2004 overturned a similar order stopping the deportation of an Iranian family with young children. It may well be as the Tokyo District Court held that it would not be humanitarian to ship them back home, but the Tokyo High Court said it was the responsibility of the parents in coming to Japan.
THE MESSAGE AGAIN: REFUGEES DO NOT COME TO JAPAN.

On the other hand, the same Tokyo District Court decided not to overturn the decision to deport a gay Iranian, even though he had been recognized as a real refugee by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. This was the first case for a court ruling on sexual orientation and refugee status. The court said that the man could just hide his sexual status and be safe. Of course now that there is a court case and a UN ruling about him, one wonders just how anonymously this man could live in Iran.

An ethnic minority couple from Myanmar had also filed suit seeking release from immigration detention. They had fought the Myanmar government and entered Japan on fake passports. On the other hand, immigration authorities decided to deport a Vietnamese woman and her two children who had been in Japan since 1995 since she had a fake birth date in her passport.

In contrast again, a Korean women who entered Japan on a fake passport from China was given a special status visa and permitted to stay. The woman appears to have been born in Japan and migrated with her family to North Korea in the early 1960s and in 2001 fled to China. There are concerns about her welfare if she was returned to China and was then sent back to North Korea.

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved Attorney Roderick H. Seeman

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