Japan Immigration News

Opinion: Japan must reform its refugee and immigration system to avoid further tragedies

Release Date: 2024-03-06
Media: The Mainichi
Summary: Wishma Sandamali, a Sri Lankan woman who came to Japan in 2017 to study Japanese and eventually sought a new life teaching English, tragically died in an immigration detention center in Nagoya on March 6, 2021. She was detained for overstaying her visa and had been visibly unwell for months before her death. Despite repeated pleas for medical attention, she was denied treatment, and her condition deteriorated. Prior to her death, she had lost significant weight and was in extreme pain, but authorities dismissed her symptoms, believing she was faking her illness to be released.

Wishma’s death, the 18th in such a facility since 2007, highlights the harshness of Japan’s immigration detention policy, which allows for indefinite detention and often fails to meet international human rights standards. Her family is suing the Japanese government for 156 million yen, claiming that her death was a result of unlawful detention and lack of medical care. They are also fighting for full access to the video footage of her final hours, which reveals disturbing moments, including Wishma vomiting blood and begging for help.

Despite the outrage following her death, Japan’s government has continued to propose bills that uphold harsh immigration detention policies, including indefinite detention without sufficient due process. These laws violate international human rights standards, which state that detention should only be used as a last resort. The family’s struggle is not only for justice for Wishma but also to expose the systemic issues within Japan’s immigration system that lead to such tragedies. Japan’s refugee acceptance rate is one of the lowest among G20 countries, and there is growing pressure for immigration reform to ensure that future migrants and refugees can seek safety and a better life in Japan without fear of abuse or death in detention.
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