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Help refugees in Japan

Info exchange on refugees rapped
Lawyers see asylum bids ending if home countries are told

By MASAMI ITO
Staff writer

Japan may explicitly legalize providing personal information on people
seeking asylum to authorities in their country of origin, where they
fear persecution, lawyers said Monday. In April, legal amendments aimed
at cracking down on human-trafficking were approved by the House of
Councilors—including a revision to the Immigration Control and
Refugee Recognition Law.

The revision, which is now before the House of Representatives, states
that the justice minister may provide information to foreign authorities
“if necessary to carry out tasks related to immigration control and
refugee recognition.”

Lawyer Tadanori Onitsuka, who represents people seeking asylum,
criticized the amendment, saying Japan would be cooperating with foreign
authorities who pose a persecution threat.

“If this revision is enacted, people will not be able to seek asylum (in
Japan),” Onitsuka said. “If information on asylum seekers is to be
provided to their alleged persecutors, their family members remaining in
(their home countries) could face persecution.”

There is currently no legal provision that stops Japan from such action.

Last summer, immigration officials traveled to Turkey to investigate the
backgrounds of Kurds seeking asylum in Japan. Onitsuka pointed out that
the immigration officials provided the Turkish government with personal
information, including the names of the people in question.

Amnesty International has slammed the action, saying “the Japanese
government has increased the risk of serious human rights violations,
including arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment” in the event
the people are sent back to their home country.

One of the Kurds targeted in the “investigation” said Japanese officials
along with Turkish police and military officials went to the home of his
family. There, his brother was asked various questions, including what
kind of activities the Kurd had engaged in, why he traveled to Japan and
why he was seeking asylum.

“Because of this (investigation), my family had to flee from home,” the
Kurdish man told The Japan Times. “Even now, no one answers the phone in
the house. I have no means to contact them, and I have to wait for the
very seldom phone calls I receive from them.”

The Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau said Japan routinely exchanges
information with foreign immigration officials on certain cases,
including on investigations into immigration law violations.

Regarding asylum cases, a senior official at the Immigration Bureau said
that if the fact of seeking asylum has already been made public, Japan
may exchange relevant information with the country of origin for factual
confirmation of their situation there.

This will include a situation in which a person seeking asylum has been
denied refugee status and has filed suit seeking to have the rejection
overturned, thereby publicly contesting the immigration decision, the
official said.

“(This law) does not mean that we will provide any information that has
been requested by the other government,” the official argued.

“We will carefully consider each person’s situation so as not to create
the danger of persecution.”

The Japan Times: June 7, 2005