By TAKUYA ASAKURA/ Staff Writer
February 24, 2023 at 15:11 JST
Protesters rally against proposed revisions to the immigration control law in Osaka on Feb. 23. (Takuya Asakura)
OSAKA--Chanting “no to xenophobic immigration law” and “inclusion, not exclusion,” about 150 protesters rallied on Feb. 23 here to protest revisions to the immigration law that would make it easier to deport asylum seekers.
Hundreds more took to the streets across Japan, including Tokyo and Nagoya, to oppose the government's controversial bill.
“People who resist deportation have good reasons to do so, such as having failed to gain refugee status despite that they could be persecuted in their home countries or wanting to stay with their Japanese families,” said the organizer of the rally in Osaka's downtown area. “The government should grant them residency status rather than expel them.”
In 2021, the government scrapped a similar bill to revise the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law following opposition to the proposed change that allows the deportation of asylum seekers while their applications are being processed.
The government’s attempt to pass the bill was also hampered by public outrage over the mistreatment of Wishma Sandamali, a Sri Lankan woman, who died in March 2021 following months of detention for overstaying her visa at a state facility in Nagoya.
The bill currently being debated at the Diet retains key elements of the previous proposal.
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