A Nigerian asylum seeker and activist, Elizabeth Aruoriwo Obueza is
being held in solitary confinement at a Tokyo detention center, a case that has
highlighted a growing crackdown on foreigners living in Japan without
visas and prompted demands for her release.
Reuters reports that Obueza was detained two weeks ago after authorities
turned down an appeal against her asylum rejection.The 48-year-old woman campaigns for asylum seekers and the 4,700 people on
"provisional release" from immigration detention - a status that lets
foreigners out from detention but bars them from working and traveling
freely.
Obueza's
arrest is part of a wider campaign by the Justice Ministry, which in
September 2015 said it would take steps to reduce the 60,000 foreigners
living in Japan without visas. People
on provisional release, many of whom have lived in Japan for decades,
have been among those targeted, activists and lawyers say.
"Elizabeth
was targeted and detained for being an activist," said immigration
lawyer Shoichi Ibusuki. "I want her released immediately."
The
crackdown on people like Obueza comes even as people on provisional
release, despite being legally unable to work, power Japan's
construction and manufacturing sectors as companies scramble to find
workers in the worst labor shortage in decades.
"Elizabeth
is held in solitary because she's an activist and immigration officials
don't want her causing trouble," said Mitsuru Miyasako, head of the
Provisional Release Association in Japan, a group representing refugees
and immigrants.
"Locking someone up alone in a tiny room is to ruin them psychologically."
Naoaki
Torisu, a senior Justice Ministry official overseeing immigration
detention, declined to comment on Obueza's situation, saying he could
not discuss individual cases.
Obueza,
an evangelical Christian, said she fled Nigeria for Japan in 1991 to
escape female genital mutilation and applied for asylum in 2011. She
told Reuters she was locked up for more than 22 hours a day. Typically,
detainees at the Tokyo Immigration Bureau, where she is held, are
locked up for 18 hours a day, according to the Justice Ministry.
"I
want to help people," Obueza told Reuters from across a security divide
in a small meeting room at the detention center. "Give me the right to
help people - don't put me in here."
During
her previous 10-month arrest in 2011 at a different center, Obueza
organized detainees to write a petition to immigration authorities
calling for better medical care, Miyasako said. For
more than a decade, Obueza has visited immigration detention centers
across Japan, helping detainees navigate the asylum system and find
legal help, said rights groups, lawyers and former detainees.
"She
has supported so many people as an activist and that's a nuisance for
the immigration authorities," said Miyasako, who has worked with Obueza,
adding that she had helped hundreds. Former detainees and people on
provisional release visit her in detention every day, sometimes waiting
for hours, he said.
Solitary
cells, usually for detainees who are ill, unruly or have tried to harm
themselves, are about five square meters, detainees say. In 2014, a Sri
Lankan man died in a solitary cell at the same center, highlighting
problems with medical care.
Isolation has not stopped Obueza from fighting for detainees' rights.
"When I go outside my room, I go around the windows and talk to the others," Obueza said. "I advise them."
Obueza
said of the immigration officials who locked her up: "You might think
you arrested me, but I think God wants me here to help some other
people."
Source: Reuters
