Japan - Suicide Launches Group Hunger Strike At Immigrant Detention Centre

Japan has some of the strictest immigration rules in the world. From the approximately 20,000 people that applied for asylum in the country in 2017, 20 were accepted. The others are faced with a grueling long wait.

Often times, Japan faces criticism for this from other countries but for the past decades it has not changed its ways.

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Last weekend, an Indian asylum seeker who had waited for several years was finally refused and committed suicide as a result. He was found in a shower room with a towel bound around his neck.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Detainee&#39;s suicide, mass hunger strike at Japanese immigration center could bring international criticism to Japan, which accepted only 20 refugees in 2017 <a href="https://t.co/cJbX0Srads">pic.twitter.com/cJbX0Srads</a></p>&mdash; Thoton Akimoto (@Thoton) <a href="https://twitter.com/Thoton/status/986196318157619200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2018</a></blockquote>

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In the immigration detention center where he did it, many of the residents say conditions are very dire, and as a response to his act, some 40 others have now gone on hunger strike.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dozens of detainees at the East Japan Immigration Control Center in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, go on a hunger strike over the poor conditions under which they are held and extended periods of detention. This follows the apparent suicide of an Indian detainee last week.</p>&mdash; SNA Japan (@ShingetsuNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShingetsuNews/status/986187660216623104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2018</a></blockquote>

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"Detention periods are abnormally long in Japan," said Hiromitsu Masuda, of rights group Provisional Release Association in Japan.

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"Such protests are likely to be repeated unless Japan changes the policy."

There are 17 immigration facilities across Japan, including in Tokyo, Osaka, Ibaraki and Nagasaki. As of last Friday, those centers held some 1,300 people. The current suicide is the 14th at the Japanese immigration centers.

Source:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/indian-detainees-apparent-suicide-in-japan-spurs-hunger-strike-over-conditions-at-detention-centres/articleshow/63797114.cms