The Immigration Office filed a lawsuit to lock 17 people in a six-person room

OSAKA – On Friday, their attorney said four foreigners sued the immigration office in Osaka over the pain they said they had endured in 2018 for being detained with 13 other detainees in a small room of a facility despite a major earthquake in the area.

In the lawsuit filed in the Osaka County Court, the four from Nigeria, Pakistan and Peru are claiming nearly 3 million yen in total from the regional immigration services office in Osaka after being held for more than 24 hours in a 20-square-meter room. To house up to six people, according to the attorney.

During their detention, since June 17, 2018, the electricity was cut off and they were not provided with drinking water. According to the complaint, they were not allowed out when a 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck Osaka and other parts of western Japan the next morning.

This development comes as the treatment of detainees in immigration facilities has come under increased scrutiny following the death of Sri Lankan woman Ratnayake Liyanaj Yishma Sandamali in March while in detention at the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Office.

Wishma had complained of stomach pain and other symptoms since January. Her death, which activists blamed for not providing adequate medical care, led to the government’s decision earlier this month to withdraw a bill to review rules for the asylum system and how to deal with foreign nationals facing deportation.

The four plaintiffs were detained at the Osaka office due to overstaying their visas and were all granted provisional release by May 2020.

According to the complaint, the 17 detainees gathered in a small room with three bunk beds at around 11 a.m. on June 17, 2018, to discuss their feeling that the medical treatment at the facility could be improved.

Osaka Immigration Services Regional Office in Osaka City | Kyodo

After about 30 minutes, when the time allowed to visit the rooms of other detainees ended, they were told to return to their rooms but were refused, and as a result, all 17 were locked up from the outside. The door remained closed until noon the next day.

While in the room, they were unable to use the air conditioning despite the insufficient ventilation. They claimed that the transaction constituted an illegal exercise of public authority, according to the complaint.

A 56-year-old Nigerian man, one of the plaintiffs, who suffers from a hernia, said he sought treatment but was refused and had a stressful night without enough space to lie down.

Another 51-year-old Pakistani prosecutor said, “It was cruel treatment because we were treated as prisoners. I want the immigration authority to respect human rights and review its response.”

Ikoya Nakao, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the office’s treatment was “punitive and unimaginable.”

The Osaka Immigration Office said it could not comment on the lawsuit because it had not yet received the complaint. In 2018, an official said, detainees were being held to “maintain order” as they shouted and knocked on the door.

The official said at the time that the office did not open the door even after the earthquake as he saw that the earthquake did not harm the detainees.

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