Japan court awards asylum seekers damages over prolonged detention
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A Japanese district court has ordered the state to pay a total of 1.2 million yen ($8,260) in compensation to two asylum seekers, ruling that in some cases their repeated detentions by the country's immigration agency did not take account of their physical and mental conditions.
Deniz, a Kurdish man in his 40s with Turkish nationality, and Heydar Safari Diman, an Iranian national in his 50s, sought about 30 million yen in damages, after they were detained and released several times over the space of more than a decade. They filed the lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court in 2022 focusing on their treatment from 2016.
The ruling handed down on Tuesday said that on some occasions, they were detained despite deteriorating health conditions, such as a diagnosis of depression.
"We cannot say the necessity of detention overrode their physical and mental disadvantages," the court said, ruling that some of their detentions violated the International Covenants on Human Rights and amounted to unjust physical restraint prohibited by Japan's immigration law.
The plaintiffs also questioned the immigration law itself, which allows detention without going through a review process such as trials, saying that it infringes the human rights covenants.
But the court dismissed their claim on the grounds that their rights to a trial are guaranteed through a lawsuit seeking release.
Masako Suzuki, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, underscored the significance of the ruling, telling a press conference that it "clearly acknowledges that there was a violation of the International Covenants on Human Rights in the detention."
The Immigration Services Agency has said it will respond "appropriately" after reviewing details of the ruling, since some of its claims were not upheld.
According to the complaint, Deniz, who declined to give his surname for fear of retaliation against his family in Turkey, and Safari Diman had both overstayed their visas and were subsequently repeatedly detained by the Immigration Services Agency.
From 2016 to 2020, they were detained several times for a total of more than three and a half years each, the complaint said. They have been on provisional releases since the spring of 2020, according to their supporters.
Seeking help from the international community, the two had notified a U.N. expert panel on arbitrary detention of their cases, leading the panel to release an opinion in 2020 that found their deprivation of liberty was "arbitrary" and contravened human rights covenants.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Nikkei Asia
an hour ago
- Nikkei Asia
Europeans try to coax Iran back to diplomacy as Trump weighs strikes
GENEVA (Reuters) -- European foreign ministers are set to meet their Iranian counterpart on Friday aiming to create a pathway back to diplomacy over its contested nuclear program despite the U.S. considering joining Israeli strikes against Iran. Ministers from Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, as well as the European Union's foreign policy chief spoke to Abbas Araqchi earlier this week and have been coordinating with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Asahi Shimbun
an hour ago
- Asahi Shimbun
Survey shows Japanese have harsh views toward refugees
Congolese children wait to receive food rations at a refugee camp in southern Burundi on April 3. (Susumu Imaizumi) Japanese have a much harsher view of refugees than citizens in other countries and have done the least individually to help people who have fled their homelands, an international survey showed. Ipsos, a market research company headquartered in Paris, released the results of its survey of 23,000 people from 29 countries on June 20, which is World Refugee Day. In one question in the survey, respondents were asked if they agree or disagree with the statement, 'Most refugees who come to my country will successfully integrate into their new society.' An average of 40 percent of all respondents agreed with the statement. However, the rate was only 17 percent for Japanese, the lowest among the 29 countries. For the statement, 'Refugees make a positive contribution to my country,' 20 percent of Japanese agreed, the second-lowest percentage in the category, following Hungary's rate. The overall average was 40 percent. The survey showed that on average, 62 percent of all respondents agreed that 'wealthier nations have a moral responsibility to provide financial support to refugees.' Japan had the lowest agreement rate for this statement, at 43 percent. The survey also asked respondents if they have done anything in the past 12 months to help refugees, such as providing donations or volunteering. Japan had the highest rate of 'nothing,' at 92 percent, followed by Hungary and South Korea, both at 80 percent. However, responses to other statements that took a hard line against refugees showed that Japanese do not necessarily reject the idea of accepting them into their country. The survey offered these two statements: 'We must close our borders to refugees entirely--we can't accept any at this time' and 'Most foreigners who want to get into my country as a refugee really aren't refugees.' The percentage of Japanese who agreed with these statements was below the overall average in the survey. There were 42.7 million refugees worldwide as of the end of 2024, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Yomiuri Shimbun
an hour ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Japan-S. Korea Leaders Meeting: Prevent Bilateral Cooperative Relations from Going Backward
The security environment in Northeast Asia is becoming ever more severe. The free trade regime is also at a crossroads due to the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policy. It likely can be said that Japan and South Korea share common challenges in terms of security and economic policy. If relations between the two countries deteriorate again, they will not be able to overcome their predicament. The need to deepen cooperation between the neighboring countries has grown significantly. In Canada, where the summit of the Group of Seven advanced nations was held, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who took office this month, met for about 30 minutes. It was their first in-person meeting. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between Japan and South Korea. Based on that, the two leaders reached an agreement on deepening communication toward the stable development of Japan-South Korea relations. They also agreed on a policy of continuing reciprocal visits by the leaders. Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol had significantly improved relations between the two countries. The solution Yoon worked out to the issue of lawsuits regarding former wartime requisitioned workers from the Korean Peninsula has been accepted by many parties involved. In addition, in defense cooperation between Japan, the United States and South Korea, as well as between Japan and South Korea, a mechanism for the immediate sharing of information on North Korean missiles has been established among the three countries. Many have highly praised the diplomatic skills of Yoon, who had looked squarely at the security environment. Lee, however, has criticized such responses by Yoon as being a 'diplomacy of humiliation toward Japan.' In the past, he also has called Japan a 'hostile state.' During his recent presidential election campaign, Lee did not communicate such messages. However, the Japanese side was wary that he might rehash historical issues between the two countries at the meeting with Ishiba. In the end, Lee expressed his desire for 'better relations in a future-oriented manner' at the meeting. In the face of the worsening security environment, Lee may have judged it better to maintain relations with Japan for the time being. In the past, there have been many South Korean presidents who have initially taken a conciliatory stance toward Japan when they took office but then touted their 'anti-Japanese' stance when their approval ratings declined. It remains to be seen whether Lee will be able to maintain his position on Japan. North Korea has sent soldiers to Russia, which is engaged in aggression against Ukraine, and in return has received assistance in missile technology and other areas. Expanded military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a threat to Japan and South Korea. Japan and South Korea are also similar in that they are vulnerable to Trump's tariff measures due to their large auto exports to the United States. There may be approaches in which the two countries, as allies of the United States, can cooperate through their measures against U.S. tariffs. People traveling between the two countries reached a record high of over 12 million last year. It is hoped that mutual understanding between the people of the two countries will be deepened through continued exchanges. (From The Yomiuri Shimbun, June 20, 2025)
