Photo/Illutration The Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Two foreign female detainees have filed a lawsuit with Tokyo District Court seeking temporary release from an immigration facility because of fears of infection by the novel coronavirus.

The women--one from China and the other from the Philippines--are being detained at a Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau facility for overstaying their visas and other violations.

The lawsuit, dated May 22, seeks a retraction of an order denying the women temporary release. Lawyers for the women said this was the first case of detainees asking for release because of their concerns about becoming infected with COVID-19.

The Chinese woman has been detained for 15 months while the Filipina has been detained for about three years. They claim in the lawsuit that their continued detention raises the risk of becoming infected and that their rights to good health are being violated.

According to lawyers who have supported detainees, the women are kept in cells holding three or four detainees, an example of the unventilated and congested spaces that the government is warning the public to avoid.

As of April 30, 280 men and women were detained at the Tokyo bureau’s facility. While restrictions were temporarily placed on visitors, those detainees still come in daily contact with staff at the facility, leaving many detainees fearing that they will become infected.

The Chinese woman told her lawyer that she feared becoming infected and that if she was not given a temporary release, she would rather die.

On April 25, female detainees did not return to their rooms at the prearranged time and began protesting for a temporary release in a common room. A large number of male facility employees forcibly returned the women to their cells.

One female detainee who witnessed the incident said, “Two or three women were forcibly taken back to their cells by about a dozen male workers. It was a very tense situation.”

According to the lawsuit, the Chinese woman slashed her wrist the following day using a piece of wire in an apparent suicide attempt.

Since her detention, the Filipina has been unable to see her 10-year-old daughter, who lives in a foster care facility.

“Her stress level has reached its limit because of her fears of infection and due to the loneliness she feels from not being able to see her daughter,” said Jun Sasamoto, the woman’s lawyer.

An organization that supports detainees questioned the need for such violent measures to return the women to their cells.

When asked about the incident at a May 13 hearing in the building for Upper House members, Akira Okamoto, who heads the security department at the Immigration Services Agency, said, “The staff responded in line with regulations. Male employees may become involved in dealing with female detainees during an emergency.”

According to the office of Upper House member Mizuho Fukushima, which questioned central government officials, while there were 1,139 detainees at all detention facilities on April 7, when a state of emergency was declared related to the coronavirus pandemic, the number decreased to 914 by April 30.

Support groups believe many detainees were given a temporary release to prevent further infections. However, those groups insist there are still many detainees being kept at the facilities despite their continuing concerns.

Statements have been released since April by the United Nations Network on Immigration, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations and other organizations both in Japan and abroad asking that the detainees be released to prevent a spread of infections.

Regarding the latest lawsuit, the Immigration Services Agency said it would deal appropriately with the case after studying the lawsuit.