June 5, 2024

Japanese Communist Party lawmakers Motomura Nobuko (Lower House) and Nihi Sohei (Upper House) met with visiting Turkish parliamentarians in the Diet building on May 31 over the issue of human rights for Kurdish refugees in Japan.

They received a visit from Meral Danis Bestas and Vezir Coskun Parlak of the People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM). The DEM is the second largest opposition party in Turkey and is supported mainly by the Kurds.

Bestas said she is concerned that Kurds in Japan and their families, who have fled the Turkish government’s oppression, would face danger if deported to Turkey.

Parlak explained that pro-Kurdish political parties have been repeatedly suppressed by the Turkish government, and said that he hopes to resolve the issues of free speech, democracy, and fundamental human rights peacefully through his work in the Grand National Assembly.

Nihi pointed out that it is problematic that the Japanese government does not recognize Kurds in Japan as refugees and has been neglecting human rights violations against them, adding that the lives of foreign nationals without residency status are severely restricted in Japan. He said that they are placed in immigration detention centers, prohibited from working even if they are provisionally released, and not eligible for the national health insurance program.

Motomura said that in a recent Diet debate, she highlighted the case in which a 15-year-old Kurdish girl was taken to an emergency room with a severe case of flu and was hospitalized for a day, and that the girl was then charged 240,000 yen upon release. Motomura said, “The JCP will continue to make every effort to ensure that the children of refugee families can live safely in Japan in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

Past related article:
> JCP Motomura: Special permission to stay in Japan should be granted to all children of vis overstayers [May 30, 2024]