Message of the Commission

For The 91th World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2005

To Set Prisoners Free

There are three national facilities that go by the name, “Detention Center for Foreigners” in Japan. What kind of, “foreigners” have been, “detained” at these centers? Are they thieves? Are they murderers? The vast majority of people, who have been detained, had left their home country and come to Japan because they were unable to support their families. They are serious, hard working people, who had been flowing with sweat at low paying work shops. For the simple reason that, the time limit of their visas which are necessary in order to stay in Japan had expired, they were pushed into narrow confines, and forced to live a life where there is not even a fragment of privacy. It is day after day, of married couples pulled apart, parents separated from their children, and letters that are completely censored. Furthermore, while they continue to live this kind of life, they are kept in a situation where they are not even given any knowledge of when it will all end. In this kind of environment, their physical condition deteriorates, and they lose their mental balance. More than that, the following types of cases have also been reported.

1).Told it would be two months detention, it was more than a year. A man, who had come from Southeast Asia and overstayed his visa, got married to a Japanese woman. They registered their marriage at the City Office, and after a long period of negotiations, at last it was possible for him to be entered in the family registry. They took this document and went to the Immigration Center. They did this to obtain a visa for a spouse. Here too a long period of negotiations was necessary. Furthermore, at the time they finally agreed to issue him a visa for a spouse, he was told that it had been decided that since he had “overstayed his first visa, they would have to put him in the detention center but only for two months.” In fact, this husband was only released from detention, a year and two months later. And in addition, even after being released, he had to wait a further number of months before he had his new visa in hand. Why should they swagger about with this kind of lying?

2).Even victims of human trafficking are detained. Women, who have been deceived by the flattery of traders, keep coming to Japan from Southeast Asia and South America. These women who have come convinced that they will be given easy, high paying occupations, are ordered to do the job of selling their bodies once in Japan. Without knowing it, they come to the point of shouldering a large amount of debt to these traders, and are forced every day and every night, to “work” to pay back these debts. Their passports are taken away from them, and if they do not do what they are told, then they are threatened, even with the killing of their families in their home country. When these women have been detected as having overstayed their visas, the Ministry of Justice locks them up like criminals in detention centers without any concern for their guilt or innocence. When it is so clear that these women are victims, why must they be forced to suffer even more?

3.) Even small children are detained. At the end of a long detention, they are forcibly sent back to their home countries by the strong arm of the Japanese government, (forced repatriation). On these occasions, when the detainee is a woman, there have been cases where the children, who will be forced to return together with their mother to the home country, have also been detained at the detention centers. Even saying that it is only for a short stay, (about a ten day period), why must small children be brought into a situation, where they are locked up in a confined space, unable to see the outside, and are among adults, who to say the very least, are under stress and acutely volatile?

In a country, in which we would expect to be able to sing about the protection of basic human rights, the kind of human rights violations that make us shake our heads and wonder are occurring on a daily basis. This fact calls to mind the words which the late Pope John Paul II often spoke to young people, “As such, Christians must above all listen to the cry for help that comes from a multitude of migrants and refugees, but they must then foster, with active commitment, prospects of hope that will herald the dawn of a more open and supportive society,” (Message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2005). I think that we should once again, renew our determination to continue to build a world where there are no, “persons imprisoned without cause.”

September 25, 2005 Catholic Commission for Migrants, Refugees and People on the Move Chairperson: Tani Daiji (Bishop of Saitama Diocese)