<<Japan's Racist Refugee
Policy>>
Even before the events of September 11, 2001, the Japanese government was notorious for its racist and exclusionary refugee policy. In the last ten years the government has only recognized 49 refugees from around the world, the worst record among the G7 countries. After September 11, Japanese governmental policies for refugees has become more exclusionary and more harsh to the asylum-seekers in Japan than ever. <<Escaped from Taliban, Detained in Japan>> In 1998 and afterwards, when the Taliban had taken control of Mazar-e-Sharif and more than the half of North-West part of Afghanistan, the Hazara people, who are descendants of Ghengis Khan and Shi'ite Muslims, were made the targets of planned genocide. A lot of Hazaras have escaped from their homelands and become refugees. Some of them have traveled as far as Japan in their search for protection. Their number increased particularly beginning in 2001, and most of them applied refugee recognition to Japanese government. However, after September 11, Japanese government began investigation of these Afghanistan asylum-seekers for the suspicion of their relation with the Taliban regime and al-Qaeda. On October 3, Japanese Immigration Bureau and the Police assaulted some points which Afghan asylum-seekers had lived and arrested 9 Afghan asylum-seekers. They were detained into the Immigration Detention Center in Tokyo. When they were arrested, they were under investigation if they must be recognized as refugees, and the decision had not been made yet. The police unit in charge of the detentions was armed with the automatic rifle at that time (in Japan, it is almost unheard of for police to carry automatic weapons). Though these refugees were anti-Taliban and had been persecuted by the Taliban, they were made in to the objects of "anti-terrorist measures." However, even though they were questioned, the Japanese government were unable to uncover any relationship with terrorists, and instead the government began to claim that they were actually "rofeign workers camouflaged as refugees." <<Once Released, but......>> On the other hand, some attorneys in Tokyo met the Afghan detainees and found that the detention was unlawful against the international covenant of refugees and other international standards of UNHCR. They organized a group of attorneys to save them, and legal action was started in order to solve their detention. The action was successful, and the government's refugee policy was judged as being overly exclusionary. On November 6, Tokyo District Court's third civil affairs section (Chief Judge: Masayuki Fujiyama) , which examined 5 members out of the 9, made its historic decision to release all of them (5 members), and criticized the Japanese governmental policy for refugees like that; "the government's policy for refugees are exclusive enough to say that it is against international order and public welfares." The Japanese government, taken aback by this judgment, filed an appeal to the Tokyo High Court, and in an attempt to "prove" that they were "workers in camouflage", released personal information that has been collected by Japanese secret police.@About 2 months later, Tokyo High Court overturned the decision made by Tokyo District Court, and finally the temporary released 5 members were detained again in the Detention Center in Tokyo. Furthermore, On November 27, Japanese government
decided to deport them to Afghanistan, and moved them to another detention
facility in the northeast region of Japan which takes about 3 hours from
Tokyo by train etc.
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Go
to the Japanese page of Tokyo consultant of Civil Movement