Photo/Illutration A sister of Wishma Sandamali places a flower on her coffin at a funeral service in Nagoya’s Moriyama Ward on May 16. (Haruka Ono)

NAGOYA--Sisters of a Sri Lankan woman who died while detained at a local immigration facility pled for help at her funeral service to prevent a tragedy like this from occurring again.

“It is unbearable to see my sister dead in a country she loved so much,” Wishma Sandamali’s sister Wayomi said in a speech before about 80 attendees on May 16. “What happened to my sister should not happen to anybody else, and we will beseech you to make sure of that.”

Wishma, 33, died at a detention facility operated by the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau in March after suffering from severe nausea and having difficulty walking. She was detained in August after overstaying her visa.

Wayomi, 28, and Poornima, 26, saw Wishma’s body on May 16 after quarantining against the coronavirus following their arrival in Japan on May 1.

Akemi Mano, a 67-year-old woman living in Tsushima, Aichi Prefecture, who had had exchanges with Wishma, said the body appeared totally different from how she remembered her when she was alive.

“It must have been really difficult for her,” she said.

According to a support group, Wishma’s health deteriorated to the point where she could no longer eat. She requested provisional release from the detention facility twice since December.

But her requests were turned down.

The arrival of her sisters comes as lawmakers debate revisions to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law in the Diet, as the issue of prolonged detentions of foreign nationals who overstayed their visas or who had their refugee claims denied has become a growing concern.

The opposition bloc is demanding that the government impose a cap on detention periods and set clear-cut criteria for granting or denying provisional release. It is also demanding that the revision bill drop a clause that immigration authorities can deport asylum seekers after their previous two requests for refugee status were denied. 

Activists protesting the legal revisions staged rallies in many parts of Japan on May 16 to coincide with the funeral service for Wishma.

In Nagoya, Yuko Kono, a lawyer, railed against the legislation at a gathering of about 110 people.

“The revision would further push foreign nationals into a corner,” she said.

In Osaka, about 300 people marched for about 2 kilometers in Kita Ward while holding signs opposing the revisions after pausing to pray in silence for Wishma.

They did not chant protest slogans as a precaution against the novel coronavirus.

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