{"id":16720,"date":"2021-06-30T15:04:14","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T22:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16720"},"modified":"2021-06-30T15:05:43","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T22:05:43","slug":"japans-gaijin-tank-immigration-detention-centers-the-death-of-sri-lankan-wishma-sandamali-highlights-a-senseless-inhuman-and-extralegal-system-killing-foreigners-theyve-trapped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16720","title":{"rendered":"Japan’s “Gaijin Tank” Immigration Detention Centers: The Death of Sri Lankan Wishma Sandamali highlights a senseless, inhuman, and extralegal system killing foreigners they’ve trapped."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. At long last, I can get to this issue.<\/p>\n

As I have written elsewhere, Japan’s Immigration Bureau Detention Centers (aka “Gaijin Tanks<\/a>“) are an extra layer of incarceration that only non-citizens must deal with.<\/p>\n

Regular Wajin Japanese, when detained, arrested, and\/or incarcerated, go through Japan’s criminal justice and prison system. \u00a0However, because non-citizen detainees cannot renew their visas while in detention, any arrest and incarceration by police increases the probability of detention later in separate Immigration detention facilities (specifically reserved for non-citizen visa overstayers and refugees\/asylum seekers). Detainees in these Immigration facilities (ny\u016bkoku kanri sent\u0101<\/em>) face a different system both in terms of criminal procedure and living conditions.<\/p>\n

In terms of procedure, inmates convicted of a specific crime and sentenced to a Japanese prison have a legally-defined release date, often with the possibility of parole; visa overstayers being detained in an Immigration detention center, however, have no specific limit to their detention period, resulting in people detained for several years (and for some, still counting).<\/p>\n

In terms of living conditions, rights of detainees to adequate food, exercise and living space in Immigration Bureau detention centers are less regulated than in Japanese prisons (which are subject to international oversight regarding standards of favorable treatment). Consequently, inhospitable, unsanitary, and generally unmonitored conditions in these detention centers have occasioned protests both from human rights organizations and from the detainees, in the form of hunger strikes and suicides. Immigration detainees have also suffered and died from their medical conditions being neglected by detention officials, and from the over-prescription of sedatives and painkillers.<\/p>\n

In 2021, the senseless death of a Sri Lankan named Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali, due to medical negligence in a detention center, brought national attention and protest against the GOJ\u2019s treatment of visa overstayers and asylum applicants\u2014and the withdrawal of a bill before the Diet that would have only strengthened the ability for bureaucrats \u201cto keep any foreign national in custody without the approval of a judge\u201d, thus violating constitutional guarantees of due process.<\/p>\n

Those are the headlines. Now for the sources:<\/p>\n