The Tokyo Consultant for Civil Movements: the Administrative Lawyer's Office of Masaki Inaba


An Appeal for the World Social Forum, Jan.31-Feb.5 in Porto Alegre, Brazil
 
24 AFGHAN ASYLUM-SEEKERS HAVE BEEN DETAINED BY JAPANESE GOVERNMENT
 
JAPANESE GOVERNMENT MUST RELEASE ALL THE AFGHAN ASYLUM-SEEKERS AND GRANT THEM AS REFUGEES
@
by Team S: Task Force to Save Mr. Shayda: an Iranian Gay Asylum Seeker in Japan

 
 
<<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. 
 
<<Disregarding the Diagnosis of ATSD>>
 
Each of nine persons has received manetal damage as a result of being detained or beaten the Taliban regime. The psychiatrist who examined them diagnosed them all as suffering from ATSD (Acute Traumatic Stress Disorder), and warned that keeping them in a detention center could worsen their disease remarkably, and would violate their human rights.  Their internment by the Japanese government has been continued disregarding this warning. 
 
<<Demand Japanese government to Change Its Racist Policy for Refugees and Immigrants>>
 
At present, there are 24 refugee applicants from Afghanistan in Japanese government detention, including these nine persons. Most of them are members of the Hazara ethnic group and it is clear that they cannot go back to present Afghanistan, because the interim government of the country is mainly consisted by Jamiyat-i Islami, a Mujahedin group of Tajiks which had killed a lot of Hazaras in the civil-war era of 1993-96. Japanese government must release them immediately, and admit them as refugees, or at least give them appropriate residency status.Moreover, the Japanese government should change its whole immigration policy to a democratic and tolerant one, discarding its racist refugee policy, and expanding the acceptance of refugees.
 
We appeal for you, as people throughout the world who love freedom and peace, to speak out to stop the detention of the Afghanistan refugee applicants, and to call upon the Japanese government to abandon its racist immigration policy.
 
 

Let's send your opinion to the Japanese Ministry of Justice!
E-mail Address of Japanese Ministry of Justice: webmaster@moj.go.jp
Sample Letter: http://www.kt.rim.or.jp/~pinktri/afghan/english_action.html 
<<The Groups and Persons who approved this Statement>>
  • <Groups>: Committee for International Cooperation in Archdiocese of Osaka, Christian Coalition for Refugees and Migrant Workers (CCRMW), Citizens' Association to Stop the Execution of Mumia Abu-Jammal, Fukuoka Catholic Council for Justice and Peace, Grobal Peace Campaign, Japanese Association for Human Rights of Koreans in Japan, Kokoro-ni-kizamu Shyukai Shikoku, NGO Network for Foreigners' Assistance KOBE, Task Force to Save Mr. Shayda: an Iranian Gay Asylum Seeker in Japan, United Church of Christ in Japan, US Japan No War Network
  • <Persons>: Bunjiro Hara, Hiromi Yoshida, Hiroshi Fukunari, Jun Miyakawa, Kanae Doi, Kyohei Iimai , Masaki Inaba , Minori Okuda, Rei Siva, Satoru Furuya, Terumi Terao, Tetsuo Miyazato, Yasutaka Ogawara, Yukinobu Aoyagi, and other 69 persons (total: January 28, 2002)
 
 


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