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2023 May 24 - 30 TOP3 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP Nihi puts questions to Kurd and lawyer as sworn witnesses over immigration bills

A witness hearing in the House of Councilors Judicial Affairs Committee took place on May 25 in connection with the government-sponsored bill to revise the Immigration Control Act and the opposition parties' counterproposal. Japanese Communist Party Dietmember, Nihi Sohei, who is a lawyer, put questions to a Kurd with Turkish nationality as well as to an asylum-seekers' supporter.

It was the first time for the Diet to interview a foreigner who had been on temporary release from an immigration detention center.

A 25-year-old Kurdish man told Nihi about the suffering he had experienced in Japan. The man said he was not allowed to work until he obtained a residency status two years ago.

He came to Japan when he was nine years old with his family. The entire family applied for asylum, but all their applications were rejected. Consequently, his father was taken into custody. The remaining family members were accorded "provisional releases" but were prohibited from working and moving freely in Japan. After he graduated from high school, he wanted to go to a school for interpreters. However, the school told him that he would not be able to get a job due to his provisional-release status even if he completed the training course. He said, "Japanese people normally know what they want to be in the future and pursue an appropriate course of action, but for us, that is only a dream."

In 2021, both he and his younger brother were granted special residence permission. However, their parents and a younger sister who was born in Japan are still on provisional releases. The three have applied for refugee status already more than twice. Therefore, they will be subject to deportation if the government-submitted bill is enacted, according to the witness.

Nihi moved on to question lawyer Watanabe Shogo, who heads the Japan Lawyers' Network for Refugees, in regard to problems of refugee recognition.

Watanabe said, "It is absolutely essential for refugee inquirers to grasp the situation of the country of an applicant in order to objectively assess the applicant's asylum claim." He, however, added that most inquirers do not sufficiently obtain information about the asylum-seeker's country, and that "the biggest problem lies here."

Watanabe referred to the recent case in which a district court ordered the government to grant a refugee status to a gay Ugandan whose asylum claim had been turned down. Watanabe said, "Refugee inquirers, in preparation for interviews, should have a firm understanding of possible persecution that homosexual Ugandans face in Uganda.

Past related article:
> Opposition-drafted bills regarding immigration control law and refugee protection entered into discussions in Upper House [May 17, 2023]