Photo/Illutration The Japan Federation of Bar Associations’ human rights committee members hold a news conference in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district on Nov. 27 about written recommendations they submitted about ending the long detention of foreigners. (Hiroyoshi Itabashi)

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) is urging the Immigration Services Agency chief and other authorities to discontinue long-term detentions of foreigners, saying they are violating their human rights.

The JFBA announced on Nov. 27 that they sent the written recommendations on ending the detention for long periods of foreigners, who have been ordered to leave Japan and have no visa to remain.

The recommendations, which are not legally binding, include limiting the detention period to half a year, in principle; having the agency disclose operational criteria for granting a provisional release, which would allow detainees to temporarily reside away from a detention center; and having the agency disclose why detainees are denied parole.

According to the agency, as of the end of September, there were 36 detainees at facilities around Japan on hunger strikes demanding their provisional release.

Of the 1,246 detainees at immigration facilities at the end of 2018, 681 had been detained for more than six months.

A Nigerian detainee in his 40s who was on a hunger strike was found unconscious in his cell at the Omura Immigration Center in Omura, Nagasaki Prefecture, on June 24 and later pronounced dead.

Detention officials did not order forced feeding measures for the detainee, although they were an option.