It was revealed on November 24 that the Immigration Bureau of the Ministry of Justice conducted an on-site survey of several Kurdish villages in southern Turkey in 2004. (The bureau is now the Immigration Services Agency.) Kurds are a minority in Turkey. Also, many who sought refugee status in Japan originated from these villages.
The report concluded that Kurds in Japan, who are concentrated in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, were in many cases merely "working away from home."
However, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations raised concerns about whether the report would spark "human rights violations." As a consequence, the bureau did not publicize the results of the investigation at that time.
Immigrants From a Narrow Region
The report in question is the "Report on the Official Field Trip to Turkey." At that time, many Kurds were filling requests for refugee status with Japanese courts. Therefore, the ministry dispatched immigration officials to several villages in June and July 2004. These officials then proceeded to investigate the living conditions in their hometowns.
According to an immigration official, the villages they surveyed were in Turkey's three southern provinces of Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, and Adiyaman. About 80% of Turkish refugee applicants in Japan are from villages in these three provinces, the report revealed. This suggested that the investigative team had already identified a certain set of concerns regarding the eligibility of Kurds as refugees.
The report states, "[Turkish] refugee applicants in Japan are concentrated from certain villages." It also notes, "All of these are migrant worker villages."
One villager told one of the immigration officers in English, "I want to work in Japan again. What do I need to do?" Other findings included the observation that thanks to having engaged in migrant labor in Japan, some villagers were able to live in better-quality housing than their neighbors.
Field Report Backlash
However, when the ministry officially submitted the report to the court, a defense team for Kurdish applicants raised concerns. It held a press conference criticizing the Immigration Bureau on several counts. These included criticism of sharing the names of refugee applicants with Turkish authorities and visiting the homes of applicants' family members in Turkey.
Japanese media at that time also criticized the justice ministry's "incompetence" for exposing the refugee applicants to the risk of persecution. They did not, however, touch on the actual contents of the report itself.
Opposition to Verification of Identities
According to the report, the asylum applicants claimed they could not go home because there were arrest warrants outstanding for them in their home country. The investigation sought to verify those claims. As the Turkish side pointed out, "We cannot make inquiries without names." Various European countries were also pursuing fact-finding in the same way, the officials learned.
At the time, the ministry retorted, "We carried out the investigation with care to prevent any new persecution." An advocacy group for the Kurds, however, submitted a petition for human rights relief for Kurds in Japan to the Japan Federation of Bar Associations.
In 2017, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations sent a "warning" letter to the then-Minister of Justice. It stated that "providing information on refugee applicants is a serious violation of human rights and could lead to new persecution." As a result, the ministry says it felt forced to seal the contents of its report.
Few Refugees, Many Applicants
Elsewhere, the Kurds' defense team took issue with the way the Immigration Bureau conducted its fact-finding mission. Specifically, it objected to allowing Turkish gendarmes to accompany them. However, these gendarmes, now security police, acted as guides during the mission.
In contrast to the objections, the report noted: "Friendly relations existed between villagers and the military police." It also stated, "Gendarmes and police show no interest in the asylum seekers in Japan."
Where It Stands Now
Kurdish plaintiffs in the cases in question did not receive refugee status in Japan. A total of 12,287 Turkish nationals have applied for refugee status over the 20 years since 2004. That is according to the Immigration Bureau. However, only four have been recognized as refugees.
Furthermore, according to Kawaguchi City, the number of Turkish nationals in the city has increased six-fold during that same period from about 200 to about 1,200. If those on provisional release pending resolution of applications for refugee status are included, the total rises to approximately 2,000.
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Read the article in Japanese.
Author: The Sankei Shimbun
