Japan pulls back bill after outcry over Sri Lankan student's death

CRITICISM over the death of a Sri Lankan student in Japan has forced the country to withdraw a bill that would have made it easier to deport failed applicants for refugee status.

Members of prime minister Yoshihide Suga's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have abandoned their attempt to pass an overhaul of the immigration law on Tuesday (18), which would have ensured that asylum seekers could be deported after their third failed application, an official said.

Japanese treatment of refugees and people facing deportation have come under extreme global criticism after the death of Sri Lankan-origin Wishma Sandamali in Nagoya Immigration Center in Japan in March. 

Sandamali went to Japan in 2017 as a college student after which she applied for refugee status in September 2018. She was permitted for a stay of two more months with no work permitted but lost her status of residence. She was arrested in August 2020 when she approached authorities for reporting domestic abuse and was charged with violating Japanese immigration control law instead.

In mid-January, 2021, Sandamali began complaining of stomach pain, nausea, loss of appetite, and numbness of the body. By mid-February, her condition grew too weak to walk or even stand and she reportedly asked the authorities repeatedly to take her to hospital. She eventually died in her cell on March 6.

“These people don’t take me to the hospital because I am in custody of them. I need to recover but I don’t know how to do it,” wrote the 33-year-old student in a letter written to a START volunteer, a local news outlet reported.

Sandamali’s death had led to a huge public outcry, bringing Japan’s treatment of foreigners facing deportation under the spotlight once again. 

Criticism of the bill further mounted online and one ruling party official reportedly said that there was no point in pushing it through, given the growing backlash. 

Japan has long been reticent about immigration and asylum, despite an aging population and shrinking workforce that economists say could be alleviated by accepting more immigrants.