Not welcome: Japan refuses more than
99 percent of 5/4/17, The Telegraph UK
It has been a decade since Liliane last saw
her little girl. She fled Africa in fear for her life, leaving behind
everything she knew and loved in the hope of a fresh start in Japan.
Today, she
scrapes a living from dead-end jobs,
and what Japanese she knows has been snatched from television shows. There is
little government help for people like her: free language courses are limited,
social housing is hard to find, discrimination is rife.
Yet Liliane is
regarded as one of the lucky ones - she was granted refugee status in Japan, a
country which refuses more than 99 percent of cases.
"It has
not been easy," she tells AFP, speaking under a pseudonym. She adds:
"Here they do not pay for your studies, they do not help you to get bank loans, or give you social housing... we are left to ourselves, we
have to fight alone."
One of the
world's wealthiest countries, Japan accepted just 28 refugees in 2016 - one
more than the previous year - out of the 8,193 applications reviewed by the
Immigration Bureau.
"The
number of applications from regions which generate lots of refugees, such as
Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, is small," said Yasuhiro Hishida, spokesman
for the Immigration Bureau.
Assisted by the UN, Liliane was able to claim asylum on arrival
in Japan stating that her life was in danger due to tribal conflict back home.
It took two years for officials to accept her as a refugee, a period during
which she received assistance from the Catholic Church and charities.
But she feels
the status brought few benefits. She is no closer to reuniting with her child -
now a teenager, her daughter has repeatedly been denied a permit to even visit.
For Liliane,
further education and a stable life, seem out of reach. She explains: "Japan is a very difficult
country for foreigners. The language is really a handicap for us. You need to
do absolutely everything to try to speak in Japanese but you don't know where
to find free lessons."
"Sometimes
I think refugee status has no meaning," she sighs. But for Nonnon, being
awarded refugee status would at least give her a sense of belonging.
She fled
military persecution in her native Burma, also known as Myanmar, 25 years ago
but remains in frustrating legal limbo, accepted only on a humanitarian stay
visa, which allows for residence and work but traditionally only on annual
temporary permits subject to anxiety-riven renewal. "It's like I have no
nationality," said the 47-year-old, who only gave her childhood nickname.
She has tried
to forge a life in Japan, she married a man from Myanmar who was also claiming
asylum and they have a son and a daughter. But their children are effectively
stateless - not recognized in Burma, nor as Japanese citizens.
Refugee advocates say Japan's system is too harsh. Lawyer Shogo
Watanabe is helping a woman from Burma's Kachin minority who says she risks
sexual assault by soldiers fighting ethnic minority militias if she goes home.
"To me,
the risk of getting raped by someone who is a member of the military is a
legitimate reason to be a refugee," he said of her plight. "But
immigration officials say you need to prove that she is actually targeted by
the military."
Critics also
say current government policy ignores the country's need for immigrants as the
population shrinks. "Japan has kept a mindset of closing doors to
foreigners as it is an island nation that until recently had ample
population," said Hidenori Sakanaka, a former Justice Ministry official
who heads a pro-immigration think tank.
The population is set to decline to 87 million by 2060 from 127 million
today. He added that Japan must "accept more migrants,
which would make society more open to multiple cultures and... to accepting
more refugees".
The first
Justice Ministry survey into discrimination against foreigners, released in
March, found that 30 percent said they had been on the receiving end of
discriminatory remarks.
One in four of
the respondents that had sought employment, believed they did not get the job
because they were not Japanese. "For us with our black skin, it is a bit
difficult. Sometimes when I sit on the train, some Japanese switch seats,"
Liliane reveals, though she adds she has never feared for her safety, which is
a major concern for asylum seekers in Europe.
She says she was overlooked for teaching work, despite her
fluency in English, when employers realized she is African. Nonnon, who
currently works in a nail salon, recalls being paid less than Japanese workers
for doing the same job. She contrasts her situation to that of family members
who escaped to other countries.
"My
relatives in America and Australia were given refugee status and they are
naturalized. They can get a job, buy a house and travel overseas," she
said, adding: "They can live as normal people. I want to live like a
normal person."
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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