Immigration’s internal documents: “Reducing applications is urgent”

(Extract from Asahi Shimbun – May 20th, 2019)

According to UNHCR’s 2017 statistics, the number of people recognized as refugees by the Japanese government was only 20 people, the lowest among the G7 countries. The largest number is 147,671 for Germany. Italy is the second smallest after Japan, but still, it has recognized 5,895 people. Japan is the only country with a recognition rate of less than 1%, as it is pointed out by UNHCR.

And according to the 2018 data released by the Ministry of Justice in March, the number of recognized refugees increased to 42 people while the number of applicants decreased by 47% to 10,493 people.

Japan Lawyers Network for Refugees (JLNR) pointed out, “since the restrictions of repeated applications have tightened, it makes applicants shrank, and there may have been situations where the application has to be withdrawn in order to avoid detention.

An internal document indicating that immigration is trying to artificially reduce the number of refugee applicants is the “notification” within Tokyo Immigration Narita Airport Branch, dated November 16, 2018. This notification requires Sri Lankans that are increasingly applying for refugee status to answer questions by writing on paper confirming if he/she “is going to return within the visa period” or “if the person is in a situation not able to return”.

This is not only discrimination against a particular nationality, but it is also an obvious attitude that they do not want to accept the person. Such measures should not be taken by a contracting party to the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.” Syogo Watanabe of JLNR says. “There is an absolute contradiction” in the current situation where the same agency carries out immigration control and refugee status determination.

Does not Japan want to accept refugees?

(Extract from Mainichi Shimbun – May 15th, 2019)

Confronted with a Kurdish father’s long-term detention, his sons cry “Come back”

A Kurdish man from Turkey has been in a detention center since last January. Chorak Mehmet came to Japan in 2004. He has repeatedly applied for refugee status but he was refused and detained when he went to immigration for the extension of his temporary release, last January.

Deportation decrees have been issued to all members of his family, including the second son (11) and third son (8), born in Japan. “The deportation order is contrary to the rules of freedom and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is part of the international human rights treaty, that Japan has ratified, and it is clearly illegal”, according to the attorney, Masaichi Hikawa.

In March, Mr. Chorak, whose long-term detention continued, fell into extremely bad health conditions. His relatives heard the complaint over the phone and arranged ambulances twice, but Immigration officials repulsed them. This issue was taken up by the National Assembly as well.

According to the defense counsel, the recognition rate of Turkish nationals who applied for asylum in the last 17 years is about 35% on average in the world, but in Japan, not a single one has been recognized.

Several Schools refuse children who are “Unable to speak Japanese”

(Extract from Mainichi Shimbun – May 17th, 2019)

When foreign nationals wish to join a school in areas where Japanese language instruction systems are not in place, there are schools that virtually refuse them because they cannot speak Japanese.

Dangol Lapina (18) came to Japan in 2014 without being able to speak Japanese, to live with her mother, in Akishima (Tokyo), when she was 13 years old. According to her mother, she went to the Akishima City Board of Education to enter school and received a “School Designation Notice.” Nevertheless, she was told that “she could not enter school if she did not understand Japanese”.

The girl learned daily conversation at “YSC Global School”, a Japanese language school operated by an NPO in Fussa city, and after five months she became able to speak simple Japanese and entered the first grade of junior high school.

Nevertheless, there was no Japanese language instruction at school and “all classes were difficult”. There was also bullying.

In the second year of junior high school, a Japanese language instructor was dispatched once or twice a week from the City Board of Education. After summer, she began to understand Japanese, little by little and was also able to make friends.

Living in Japan-Foreign Children ―

After moving from a dispersed area, Japanese language skill have been greatly improved
(Extract from Mainichi Shimbun, May 9th, 2019 – Series Articles)

The contents of help for foreign nationals who require Japanese language education differ greatly depending on the region. Ramires Annis (10), a five-year-old boy who spent two years in a “dispersed area” with few foreign children, could speak only fragmented Japanese, but after taught at a school in a Japanese language class of “special curriculum”, his Japanese has greatly improved so much that he could write a composition. He has moved to Hirose Elementary School, where 20% of the children are foreign nationals.

According to the MEXT survey in 2004, 10,418 of the 43,947 children who needed Japanese language instruction were involved in such a curriculum.