|
About 30 representatives of nongovernmental organizations on Monday called for the release of Afghan refugees currently detained in Ibaraki Prefecture. The call came as representatives from governments and international institutions gathered in TOkyo to discuss reconstruction assistance for Afghanistan. Members of the NGO Peace Boat, among others, and lawyers for the Afghan refugees made the appeal in front of Tokyo's JR Shinagawa station. "When talking about Afghan assistance in the true sense, (raising the issue of) the immediate release of Afghan refugees in Japna is inevitable," one member said. Shinagawa Station is near the Tokyo hotel where the two-day conference is being held. At least 21 Afghan refugees who have applied for refugee status in Japna are currently being detained in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, according to the lawyers representing the Afghan refugees. The refugees, some as young as 18, have been detained for between two months and more than six months, the lawyers said. "The Japanese government is saying it is going to provide a large amont of financial assistance for Afhgan reconstruction. bu in side the country, it is providing new threats to those who are applying for refugee status, having fled from the Taliban," said Kanae Doi, one of the lawyers. In the letter to the Japanese Government dated Jan. 15, an Afghan refugee detained in Ushiku, said: "Sadly, our country is not safe yet. If we go back now, our lives will be in great danger." Following the campaign in front of the train station, a statement by the NGOs, the letter , along with other letters from detainees, were handed to a Japanese Foreign Ministry official at the conference venue, according to Doi. |
|
By KEIJI HIRANO, Kyodo News
His family murdered by the Taliban, an Afghan boy called Mohammed comes to Japan as a refugee because his father had always told him the country was a peaceful one. But then Japanese immigration authorities detain him, ending his dream of going to school in Japan. The story of Mohammed is told in a fictional picture book published this month by Kensuke Onuki, one of 28 lawyers representing nine Afghans currently detained in Japan on suspicion of illegal entry. The nine men, who belong to ethnic minority groups opposed to the fallen Taliban regime, came to Japan between June and August and subsequently applied for refugee status. Most of them have had relatives killed by the Taliban and have themselves suffered torture at the hands of the fundamentalist Islamic militia, according to Onuki. "I wanted to explain in plain language about refugees and how inadequately they have been treated in Japan," the 42-year-old lawyer said. Mohammed's character was pieced together from the real life stories of the nine Afghan refugees, Onuki said, adding that a staff member at his office illustrated the book, "A Story about Mohammed from Afghanistan." The men were detained by immigration authorities on Oct. 3. In November, the Tokyo District Court ordered that five of the men be released, saying their further detention would "violate their human rights and hamper their efforts to seek refugee status." The four remaining Afghans had their release requests rejected the same month by a different district court judge. In December, the five who were released were again detained after the Tokyo High Court overturned the lower court ruling to release them, prompting Onuki to write the book. "I did not understand why the judges could not imagine how these Afghans felt when their family members were murdered and how painful it is for them to be detained in an unknown country," he said. "So I thought I could explain such things by thinking of the judges as children." The five Afghans who were released temporarily were diagnosed as having acute traumatic stress disorder due to their detention, while the other four are also believed to suffer ATSD, Onuki said. He said he hopes even those who are not especially interested in refugees read the book and also that foreigners studying basic Japanese will read it. The book depicts refugees, immigration authorities and the Taliban, and gives statistics about Afghan refugees. It also includes two postcards -- addressed to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama -- asking that the Afghans be released and given refugee status. Moriyama said in November that the nine Afghans entered Japan "presumably solely for the purpose of finding work . . . not to seek protection," adding there was little evidence to support claims they would be persecuted if they were sent home. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, about 370,000 people submitted applications for refugee status with seven Western-bloc industrialized nations last year, while those filed in Japan accounted for less than 1 percent of the total. At Narita airport, only two such applications were filed. For further information, call Onuki at Satsuki Law Office at (03) 5261-8291. |
|
Tokyo immigration authorities took five Afghan men back into detention Friday after a high court overturned an earlier ruling that ordered their release while they applied for refugee status. In response, lawyers for the five immediately appealed to immigration authorities for their temporary release. The five are being detained at a facility in Tokyo's Kita Ward. The five are among a group of nine Afghan men seeking refugee status in Japan. They presented themselves to immigration authorities at the authorities' request. Moves to deport them are now under way. In a news conference before their detention, the five said they had applied for refugee status due to their trust in the Japanese government, but were instead betrayed by it. Their lawyers criticized the decision for disregarding the Afghans' human rights. The five claim to have been victimized by the Taliban. The Tokyo High Court ruled Wednesday that the five entered Japan "for the purpose of finding work." The Justice Ministry last month rejected their applications for refugee status. The high court overturned the Nov. 6 ruling of the Tokyo District Court, which recognized an appeal filed by the five for their detention to be suspended. The district court said the immigration authorities' action to detain the men was "against international order" as it was "tantamount to ignoring the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which takes precedence over the immigration laws." A different judge at the Tokyo District Court, however, on Nov. 5 rejected the appeal for the other four to be freed. The four others, who were denied refugee status last month, already face a deportation order and are being held at a detention facility of the immigration bureau in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture. The nine Afghan men were detained Oct. 3 on suspicion of illegally entering Japan while they were applying for refugee status. |
|
By TARO KARASAKI, The Asahi Shimbun
The Justice Ministry on Tuesday issued deportation orders for four detained Afghan asylum seekers after they were denied refugee status. The four, part of a group of nine detained in an immigration sweep last month, were transferred from the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau office in Tokyo's Kita Ward to an immigration holding facility in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Tuesday, immigration officials said. With the decision, the ministry is expected to begin deportation procedures to return the men to Afghanistan. Five others who were freed from detention on a court order were also denied refugee status, but have so far refused to show up for notification of the decision. However, they were expected to be officially notified today. Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama, who authorized the rejections, told reporters the nine Afghan men did not present credible evidence to back their refugee claims. ``Judging from what we know, we strongly presume that the nine were illegally residing in Japan with the intention to work, and thus they cannot be considered refugees,'' Moriyama said. The Immigration Bureau, which says the case is closed, notified lawyers representing the men that it would not accept new evidence the legal panel was preparing to back the claims. The lawyers were preparing documents which said that the nine, all members of ethnic minorities, still risked possible persecution although the Taliban no longer controls Afghanistan, and a psychiatrist's diagnosis saying that the asylum seekers suffered trauma typical of refugees. The lawyers blasted the ministry's deportation decision at a news conference. They said they would file suit against the Justice Ministry seeking nullification of the decision on grounds the procedure was invalid. |
|
The Ministry of Justice threw out refugee status applications filed by nine Afghan men Monday, saying that there is nothing to support their claim that they have been victims of persecution under the now dethroned Taliban regime. The decision came just days after the Tokyo District Court recognized that five of the Afghan men are "obviously" refugees and criticized the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau for detaining them "illegally." Lawyers representing the Afghan men described the decision as "unjust." "Immigration told us that there is no evidence to believe they (the nine men) have been tortured or their family members murdered by the Taliban," Kensuke Onuki, head of the legal team, said. "One of our clients tried to kill himself after an immigration official told him, 'I don't believe a word you are saying.' I don't think the way immigration officials studied their application was right." The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has made it clear that an ability to provide supporting evidence (for their sufferings) should not be used as a determining factor to decide on a refugee status application, according to Onuki. The legal team also argued that the immigration bureau refused to accept supporting evidence provided by representatives of the Afghan men. A Justice Ministry spokesman refused to give their side of the story. "We cannot comment on an individual case," the spokesman said. Lawyers said the minority Afghans aged between 18 and 41 arrived in Japan between March and August this year and applied for refugee status claiming that they were victims of brutal persecution by the Taliban regime that ruled Afghanistan until recently. However, the Tokyo Immigration Bureau detained them on Oct. 3, following a series of raids targeting illegal immigrants from Afghanistan and other Muslim countries carried out in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. Claiming illegal detention, the nine went to the Tokyo District Court. Five of them were released on Nov. 9 after Judge Masayuki Fujiyama, who studied their cases, ruled that it was "rather obvious" to see they were refugees and their detention was "illegal." However, another district court judge who dealt with the rest of Afghans supported the immigration bureau, which argued that the men entered Japan in a hope to find employment. The released Afghans made a public plea to recognize their plight in a news conference, while their lawyers revealed that they were showing signs of mental stress because of mistreatment by immigration officials. Japan started accepting refugees in 1982 but so far only 265 people out of 2,179 applicants have been recognized as refugees. All refugee status applications are studied firstly by immigration officials and their decisions take effect after approval by the Justice Minister. |