May 11, 2022

The Japanese Communist Party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Social Democratic Party, the “Reiwa Shinsengumi” party, and the parliamentary group “Okinawa Whirlwind” on May 10 jointly submitted to the House of Councilors two bills aimed at protecting refugees and amending the Immigration Control Act.

A bill on refugee protection, one of the two opposition-proposed bills, is designed to make Japan’s refugee recognition system more fair and transparent and provide foreign nationals who should be recognized as “refugees” under international standards with long-term protection the same level as Japanese citizens.

Under a bill to revise the Immigration Control Act, unlike the current law, among foreigners kept in immigration detention centers, those who are in need of medical care will be temporarily released from their facilities and whether they should be taken back to custody will be decided by the courts. Furthermore, the bill will introduce a new system for the purpose of preventing human rights abuses against foreign detainees such as arbitrary detention by the immigration authorities.

At a press conference after the submission, JCP Upper House member Yamazoe Taku referred to the death of Wishma Sandamali, a Sri Lankan woman who died while in detention at the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau. He stressed that the necessity to reform the current administration systems regarding refugee recognition and immigration control becomes clearer. He added that it is significant that opposition parties jointly introduced bills to achieve this.

Past related articles:
> JCP Yamazoe attends memorial service for Sri Lankan woman who died in custody at immigration center [March 2 & 7, 2022]
> JCP Fujino calls for probe into Sri Lankan woman's death in detention [April 22, 2021]