Two-week hunger strike in Japan immigration detention ends

Record ID: 876887

  • Title: Two-week hunger strike in Japan immigration detention ends
  • Date: 25th May 2017
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (MAY 25, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) DIRECTOR OF PROVISIONAL RELEASE ASSOCIATION IN JAPAN, MITSURU MIYASAKO, SAYING: "They said they had reached their limits physically. They also said as their fight was reported widely in a society, they wanted to see how the immigration bureau would change." REPORTER TAKING NOTE (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) LAWYER AT PROVISIONAL RELEASE ASSOCIATION IN JAPAN, SHOICHI IBUSUKI, SAYING: "They told us they were on hunger strike in order to protest the fact that the Immigration center did not treat them like human beings." VARIOUS OF REPORTER ASKING QUESTION (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) DIRECTOR OF PROVISIONAL RELEASE ASSOCIATION IN JAPAN, MITSURU MIYASAKO, SAYING: "Because there is this attitude with the Japanese government that no one can be prosecuted for death of foreign nationals, I think that's why the immigration bureaux does not hesitate to engage in practices such as long-term detention, and forceful deportations, illegal immigrants who had lived for decades such as long-term detention and forcibly putting them on a plane." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS
  • Embargoed: 8th June 2017 10:15
  • Keywords: hunger strikes in detention centre ends human rights immigration detention centre Japan
  • Location: TOKYO, JAPAN
  • City: TOKYO, JAPAN
  • Country: Japan
  • Reuters ID: LVA0016IC5U85
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Foreign inmates protesting prolonged detention and poor medical care in Japanese immigration centres ended their two-week hunger strike, with the government signaling no change in policy, activists said on Thursday (May 25).
    At total of 100 men held at the several regional Immigration Bureaux launched a hunger strike on May 9 to object against repeated detentions and inhumane treatment, but had ended on Wednesday (May 24) after they had reached their physical limits.
    Despite hunger strike, Shoichi Ibusuki, a lawyer of Provisional Release Association in Japan, said the authorities have so far done little to improve conditions inside immigration detention centres, raising fears that similar incidents can happen again.
    Over the two weeks on strike, at least four detainees were briefly hospitalised, including one of whom swallowed a razor blade that was later extracted, a lawmaker briefed by immigration officials said.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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