The Cabinet-approved bill to accelerate deportations of foreign nationals illegally staying in Japan is clearly at odds with the original purpose of the legislative initiative to reform the nation’s immigration control and refugee management system.

The government submitted the bill to revise the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law to the Lower House this week for consideration.

The bill, drafted to improve the rules concerning the detention and deportation of foreign nationals staying in Japan without a proper visa, is actually little changed from a similar bill that was introduced two years ago but eventually scrapped after it was criticized for setting detention rules that failed to pay adequate attention to the human rights of detainees.

The Immigration Services Agency says as of the end of 2021 there were more than 3,000 people who refused to leave the country despite deportation orders being issued. The agency says a legal measure to ensure swift deportations of such foreign nationals is needed.

The agency claims many foreign nationals are abusing or misusing the current system on seeking refugee status, which allows asylum seekers to remain in Japan while their applications are being screened.

The current law has no restrictions on the number of times a person can apply for refugee status. To fix this shortfall, the bill contains a provision that denies asylum seekers who have already submitted applications twice this right.

This provision would cause too much damage to the administrative system to protect asylum seekers to be justified by its purpose of preventing abuse. A ban on deporting asylum seekers while their applications are being processed is a principle based on the Refugee Convention and was introduced in Japan through a revision to the law in 2004.

Creating an exception to the rule could lead to deportations of people who really need protection to countries where they can be persecuted. In Japan, which has very strict criteria for recognizing refugees, even asylum seekers who have failed twice to obtain refugee status may have good reason to seek protection.

Such people should not be left in insecure situations such as being detained or on provisional release. The government should first establish a system to make flexible responses to the individual circumstances of asylum seekers, including reasons for not returning home, even if they are not recognized as refugees.

Those who have families or supporters or are employed in Japan, for example, should be allowed to stay here as special cases.

The government needs to act swiftly to revamp the detention procedures to establish more appropriate and transparent rules.

Under the criminal justice system, no one can be arrested or detained without a warrant issued by a court. But such steps can be taken against illegal residents through internal procedures.

The lack of a legal limit to such detention puts strong stress on detainees by making their future fates unclear. In a disturbing incident in 2019, a male detainee in a detention center in Nagasaki Prefecture died from starvation after he refused to eat in protest against his prolonged detention.

In March 2021, Wishma Sandamali, a Sri Lankan woman who overstayed her visa, died from ill health following six and a half months of detention at a state facility in Nagoya.

The inhumane treatment of the woman at the facility, captured by a security camera in her room, will be shown during a trial over a lawsuit filed by her family against the state.

In November, the U.N. Human Rights Committee urged Japan to introduce a maximum period of immigration detention and take institutional measures to ensure the shortest possible period of detention.

But the new bill fails to address these concerns as it offers no legal measure to allow independent reviews of decisions concerning detention such as judicial judgment.

The government points out that the bill changes the procedures to introduce a system under which decisions to detain illegal residents will be reviewed every three months to determine whether the measure is necessary.

The bill also requires the chief of the agency to make fresh judgments on cases of continued detention. But how is it possible to ensure fair and objective assessments from the top of the agency?

Over the past three years, many detainees have been granted provisional release or special permission to stay in Japan as it has been necessary to prevent infections with the novel coronavirus within detention centers.

But the key structural problems concerning immigration detention remain unresolved. The ruling and opposition parties should work together to amend the bill fundamentally to ensure that the system will measure up to international standards.

The Asahi Shimbun, March 10