Sunday, December 05, 2021

일본에서 영어를 가르치는게 꿈이었던 소녀는 비정한 이민정책으로 죽음뿐이었다. 일본방문시 주의해야할 점.

일본의 이민정책을 굉장히 까다롭고, 웬만해서는 일본에서 살아가고 있는 외국인들에 대한 이민문호는 거의 완전히 빗장을 걸어서, 영주권을 얻어 일본에서 살아갈수있는 길은 거의 불가능한것으로 알고는 있었지만,  그과정에서 이민국에 붙잡혀 조사를 받거나 감금되여 있는 동안에 이민국 직원들의 불법거주자에 대한 관리는 최악의 조건으로 취급되고 있다는것을 이번에 자세하 알게됐다. 

꿈많은 어린소녀,   Wishma Rathnayake는 인기리에 방영됐었던 1980년대의 텔레비젼 드라마, ''가난을 극복하고 일본의 커다란 수퍼마켙 체인의 주인이 된다는 'Oshin'에 매료되여 앞날에 대한 원대한 꿈을 꾸었던 소녀 였었다.

그녀의 아버지는 딸을 영웅으로 만들기위해 모든 노력을 할것을 종용 받았었다.  '스리랑카(Colombo)'의 북동쪽에 있는 조그만 타운,Gampaha에서 첫번째로 어리 소녀가 시작한것은 일본으로 언젠가는 가서 일본어를 배우는 꿈을 꾸는것으로 시작된다.

그녀의 아버지가 사망하자, 대학을 갓졸업한 그녀는 어머니를 설득하여, 어머니의 노후를 대비하기위해 해외에서 영어를 배워, 직장을 갖고 많은 돈을 벌어 들어드리는 길이 있다는것을 강조한다.

가족은 살고있던집을 모게지를 재설정하고, 2017년 Rathnayake양은 학생비자를 받아 토쿄외곽에 있는  Narita로 이사를 한것이다. 그로부터 3년이 채 안되여 그녀는 싸늘한 주검을 맞이한것이다.

비자가 만료된후에도 일본에 체류했던  Rathnayake양은 일본의 이민정책에 따라 불법체류자 보호소에 감금되여 있었는데 2021년 3월6일에, 향년 33세의 나이로 사망하고 만것이다.   Rathnayake양의 사망사건은 전일본언론의 헤드라인으로 보도됐으며, 불법감금된 외국인들에 대한 관리에 문제가 있음을 토론하기 시작한것이다. 난민의 권리를 보호하는 일본 변호사협회의 통계에 따르면 1997년 이후로 그렇게 감금됐다가 목숨을 잃은 숫자가 무려 27명이나 된다고했다.

그녀의 죽음은 불법체류자들을 감금하고있는 시설관리에 대한 투명한 관리 현황을 아무도 몰라, 실질적으로 감금된자들의 건강관리 상태가 나빠, 신체적으로 병이들어 문제가 많다는점이 드디어 표면에 나타나고 말게한것이다.  Rathnayake양의 사망으로 충격을 받은 그녀의 자매들은 현재 불법체류자들의 관리시설을 개선해야 된다는 캠패인을 벌리고 있는 중이다.

처음에는  Rathnayake양은 본국,  Sri Lanka로 돌아가기로 결정했었으나,  Matsui의 진술에 의하면, 그녀의 동거남이 돌아가지 말고 같이 지내자고 협박을 하면서, 만약에 내말을 거부하고 본국으로 돌아간다면 그녀를 끝까지 추적하여 고통을 줄것이라고 협박하는 편지를 두번씩이나 받고, 그냥 일본에 남아 있기로 마음을 바꾼 것이라고한다.

"그녀는 그의 동거남에게 죽음을 당할것이라는 두려움으로 꽉차 있었다"라고 2020년 이민국에서   Rathnayake양을 만났던,  Matsui씨가 상황 설명을 했다.

Rathnayake양의 자매들은 2021년 3월에, 도쿄주재  Sri Lankan대사관이 전화로 Rathnayake양이 사망했다고 전해줄때 처음으로 그녀가 곤경에 처했 있음을 알았었다. 

Rathnayake양의 가족들은 정확한 사고경위와 증거가 될만한 사진들을 요구했었으나, 그러한 가족들의 요구는 무시됐고, 지난 5월에 그녀의 여동생들이 사망경위를 자세히 알기위해 일본으로 날아갔었다.

동생들은 일본에 도착하여  Nagoya에서 관속에 안치되여 있는 언니,  Rathnayake를 보았었다.  " 언니의 모습은 전연 딴판으로 보였으며, 매우 여위어서 언니인지의 여부를 알아볼수가 없을 정도 였었다. 그녀의 피부는 마친 늙은 할머니 같았아서 뼈에 바짝 붙어 있었다"라고 27세의 동생, Poornima Rathnayake양은 오열하고 말았었다.

7개월간 불법체류자 보호소에 감금되여 있는 동안에 몸무게는 20킬로가 빠졌는데, 자매들은 그이유를 알고 싶어 하고 있지만 당국은 무응답이라고 한탄이었다.  자매들이 가장 알고 싶어하는것은 폐쇄회로를 통해 찍힌 비디오로 그녀가 감금되여 있는 동안의 마지막 몇주간만이라도 보기를 원하는 것이었다.  그러나 이민국 당국은 접근을 일체 허용치 않았다고 한다.

지켜지지 않은 약속.

3개월동안 자매들과 법률팀은 지속적으로 대답을 듣고져, 매일같이 이민국 직원들과 만나서, 비데오을 보여줄것을 요구 했었다.

그들의 절실한 요구는 많은 응원자들이 함께 했으며, 일본에 거주하는 외국인들의 권익을 위한 보장을 강하게 요구하고 있다.  금년초에 일본국회에서는 관련된 비데오를 가족들에게 보여 주어야 하는지의 여부에 초점을 맞추고 토의를 하기도 했었다.

그때 일본의 국회의원들은 불법체류자에 갇혀있는 외국인들을 관리하는 법을 수정에 관한 토론을 여러번 했었는데, 난민보호를 위한 두번까지의 노력이 실패했을때에는 강제 추방하는 법도 제정할것을 토의 됐었다고 한다.  

법제정의 목적은 일본의 감금시설에 보호되고 있는 이민자들의 숫자를 줄이기 위함이었었는데, 2020년에는 무려 불법체류자가 1054명까지 증가 됐었다고 일본의 이민주선 에이전시가 데이타를 발표 했었다.

 Rathnayake양의 자매들은, 일본에 체류자중인 외국인들에 대한 정신적 억압감은 많은 부담을 감당해야하는 법의 허점을 바로잡기위한 대가를 많이 치르게 했다.

 Wishma양의 여동생, 29세의 Wayomi양은 지난 10월말에 그녀의 언니가 불법체류자 보호소에 감금되여 있는 동안에 찍힌 디데오를 보면서 정신적 충격을 많이 받고 아무런 수고한 보람도 없이 빈손으로   Sri Lanka로 되돌아 갔다. 그러나  Poornima Rathnayake양은 현재도 일본에 체류하면서 당국과의 싸움을 이어가고 있다.

"우리는 언니,  Wishma의 사망에 책임이 있는 모든 사람들이 대가를 치를기를 원하고 있는데, 왜냐면 다시는 이러한 처참한 끔찍한 사건들이 일어나지 않도록 바라는 희망을 갖고 있기 때문이다"라고 동생은 설명한다.

"이러한 참극이 내일에는 또다른 사람들의 형제, 자매, 친구, 어머니에게 또는 아버지에게 일어날수 있다는 점을 알려 주기 위함이다"

일본은 선진국으로 알고 있었는데,  일본에 체류하다 비자만기가 끝나 당국에 소환되고, 보호시설에 감금되면,  인권이 거의 무시되고 있다는 사실을 오늘 알게되면서, 세계의 많은, 특히 젊은이들에게는 경종을 울리는것으로 걱정을 하지 않을수 없다.  

Wishma Rathnayake moved to Narita, Japan on a student visa in 2017.

Her dream to teach English in Japan ended with a lesson for the country

Updated 7:28 PM ET, Sat December 4, 2021

Tokyo (CNN)As a child, Wishma Rathnayake was fascinated with "Oshin," a popular 1980s' television drama about a young girl who rises from poverty to head a Japanese supermarket chain.

Urged by her father to emulate her hero, Rathnayake started learning Japanese with a dream of one day moving to Japan from the small Sri Lankan town of Gampaha, northeast of Colombo.
When her father died, the university graduate convinced her mother she could earn enough money working abroad as an English teacher to fund her retirement.
The family remortgaged their home, and in 2017, Rathnayake moved to Narita, on the outskirts of Tokyo, on a student visa.
Within three years, she was dead.
After overstaying her visa, Rathnayake was detained in Japan's immigration system, where she died on March 6, 2021, at the age of 33.
Rathnayake's case made headlines in Japan and fueled debate over the treatment of foreigners in the country, where 27 immigration detainees have died since 1997, according to the Japan Lawyers Network for Refugees.
Her death has also exposed the lack of transparency in a system where people can languish for years with no prospect of release -- a system that her sisters are now campaigning to change.
Wishma Rathnayake (center) with her younger sisters, Poornima Rathnayake (left) and Wayomi Rathnayake (right).

Chasing a dream

Rathnayake was 29 when she arrived in Narita, and her Facebook feed soon filled with images of tourist sites and new friends.
From Sri Lanka, her younger sisters, Wayomi and Poornima, heard she was attending language classes and seemed to be happy. "She never told us or gave us a sign that things weren't going well for her," said Wayomi Rathnayake, now 29.
What her sisters didn't know was that Rathnayake stopped attending language classes in May 2018 and was later expelled. The same month, she started working in a factory before claiming asylum that September. Her claim was rejected in January 2019, and from then on she was considered an illegal immigrant.
Phone calls home became less frequent, and in August 2020, it became clear why. That month, Rathnayake approached a police station in Shizuoka prefecture, far from home, seeking help to leave her partner.
Rathnayake told the officers her visa had expired and she wanted to go to the Nagoya Regional Immigration Bureau but didn't have enough money to get there, according to Yasunori Matsui, the director of START, a non-profit that helps foreign nationals detained in Japan.
People opposing the revision of Japan's immigration control and refugee recognition law march in Tokyo on May 16, 2021.
Initially, Rathnayake agreed to return to Sri Lanka, but she changed her mind after her partner wrote two letters threatening to track her down and punish her if she returned home, according to Matsui.
"She believed she would be killed by him," said Matsui, who met Rathnayake at the immigration bureau in December 2020.
The first her sisters knew she was in trouble was in March 2021, when the Sri Lankan Embassy in Tokyo called to say she was dead.
Rathnayake's family asked for a report and photographic evidence, but their requests went unanswered, and in May her younger sisters traveled to Japan to seek the truth.

"Her skin was wrinkled like an old person and it was stuck firmly to her bones"Poornima RathnayakeWishma's sister

When they arrived, they saw Rathnayake in a funeral casket in Nagoya. "She looked so different, so weak and unrecognizable. Her skin was wrinkled like an old person, and it was stuck firmly to her bones," said Poornima Rathnayake, 27.
During seven months in detention, she'd lost 20 kilograms (44 pounds).
Her sisters wanted to know why.
Most of all, they wanted to see closed-circuit video of her final weeks in custody.
But authorities refused access.

A broken system

For three months, the sisters and their legal team rallied for answers, meeting with officials and demanding the release of the video.
Their calls were echoed by supporters and some politicians advocating for stronger rights for foreign nationals in Japan, and earlier this year a decision on whether to release the footage became a major focus of debate in the country's Parliament.
At the time, Japanese lawmakers were debating a bill that would have revised the rules on governing foreigners in detention, including provisions to deport people after two failed bids for refugee protection.
The purpose of the bill was to reduce the number of migrants in Japanese detention facilities, which had climbed to 1,054 in 2020, according to data from the Immigration Agency of Japan.
But rights groups, including a group of United Nations experts, said elements of the bill threatened to breach international human rights standards. For example, they said the clause on deportation could violate the principle of non-refoulement by forcing people to countries where they fear persecution.
"The controversy surrounding the bill helped build a national debate around her death and the issue of how foreigners are treated in Japan," said Kosuke Oie, an immigration lawyer supporting her family.
The bill was eventually scrapped.
Japan has traditionally had a low intake of migrants, though in recent years it has begun accepting more foreign workers.
In 2018, Japanese lawmakers approved a policy change proposed by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that created new visa categories to allow an estimated 340,000 foreign workers to take high-skilled and low-wage jobs.
And in a major shift last month, the Japanese government said it was considering allowing foreigners in certain skilled jobs stay indefinitely, from as early as 2022.

"This lack of judicial review has resulted in what some have called a 'black box' process"Sanae FujitaUniversity of Essex

But some say Japan still has a long way to go, and that Rathnayake's death casts a spotlight on an immigration system in dire need of reform.
Sanae Fujita, a researcher at the school of law at the University of Essex, says the main problem is that Japan's immigration bureau wields great power and is accountable to nobody.
"In contrast to other countries, in Japan the immigration process is managed solely by the immigration agency -- there is no court involvement," she said. "This lack of judicial review has resulted in what some have called a 'black box' process, with no oversight."
In 2019, Human Rights Now called for the prohibition of arbitrary detention in Japanese immigration facilities and related legal reforms, following a hunger strike by 198 detainees at Japanese immigration facilities.
In a statement, the rights group said detention facilities should be utilized as "a measure of last resort to reduce their excessive use."
Fujita argues Rathnayake's death could have been avoided, if Japan's government had listened to the Human Rights recommendations by the UN to Japan. They included imposing a maximum period of detention and allowing detainees to seek an independent review of their case.
A spokesperson for the Immigration Services Agency declined to comment on Fujita's claims.
Wishma Rathnayake's  family attended a parliamentary session of Japan's lower house in Tokyo, May 18, 2021.

'Treated like an animal'

In August, a report conducted by Japan's Immigration Services Agency, with third-party experts including medical professionals, found the Nagoya Regional Immigration Bureau had neglected to provide Rathnayake with proper medical care.
The facility's top officials and supervisors were reprimanded, and Japan's minister of justice and head of the Immigration Services Agency issued a formal apology for her death.
And, for the first time in the case of any immigration death, officials allowed Rathnayake's sisters to watch an edited two-hour video showing her final two weeks in detention. They only managed to watch half.

"What I saw on the clips upset me so much that I felt like there was much worse to be seen"Wayomi RathnayakeWishma's sister

Poornima Rathnayake said the video made her physically sick.
Wayomi Rathnayake told reporters straight after the viewing that the clips showed her sister falling from bed and guards laughing as milk ran from her nostrils.
"In the video, the guards told Wishma to get up by herself. (Her) repeated calls for assistance went unanswered as the guards urged her to get back on her bed herself. She tried to get their attention, but was ignored," Wayomi Rathnayake told CNN.
Certain sections were edited, suggesting officials were hiding the truth, she said.
"What I saw on the clips upset me so much that I felt like there was much worse to be seen."
The sisters eventually saw longer clips of unedited video in October.
They showed staff attempting to feed Rathnayake, even though she couldn't keep anything down. And on the day before she died, staff didn't phone an ambulance, even as she failed to respond to their calls, said Oie, the family's lawyer.
Rathnayake, whose visa had expired, approached the police seeking help to leave her partner.

Denied treatment

The Immigration Services Agency report found Rathnayake had complained about stomach pain and other symptoms for months before her death.
The report states she underwent medical examinations such as urine analysis, blood tests and chest X-rays to determine the cause of the problem.
However, on the day she died, staff at the facility delayed calling emergency services, even as her condition appeared to deteriorate.
The report said, in the months before her death, Rathnayake had been cooperating with immigration authorities, but her demeanor changed when she decided she wanted to stay in Japan.
The report alleges supporters had told her it would be more likely she'd be placed on provisional release if she was sick -- a claim detainees' advocate Matsui refutes. Provisional release allows detainees to live in the community while they await deportation.
Matsui said he urged officials in January to either transfer Rathnayake to hospital or give her provisional release, so supporters could take her there themselves. Another request was made in February, when Rathnayake had become so weak she could no longer grasp a pen, according to Matsui.
But those requests were refused with no reasons given, Matsui said.
Yoichi Kinoshita, a former immigration official, who now runs a non-profit seeking to reform the country's immigration system, says guards appeared to dismiss her complaints.
"It's likely that some people working in the detention facility may have thought she was exaggerating her symptoms because she wanted to get out on provisional release," Kinoshita said.

Overhauling a dysfunctional system

Last month, Rathnayake's sisters filed a criminal complaint against senior officials at Nagoya Regional Immigration Bureau alleging willful negligence. While the earlier immigration investigation found deficiencies within the system, it did not establish why she died -- and who is to blame, according to Oie, her family's lawyer.
So far, the family's campaign for justice has had small but significant wins for other people caught in the system.
"The immigration agency hasn't ever shown a video to a family before and the head of the immigration agency didn't apologize for detainee deaths either -- this is all a first," said Kinoshita.

"The immigration bureau controls everything... there needs to be a third party to provide a different perspective"Yoichi KinoshitaFormer immigration official

He says more oversight is needed of the agency that controls every aspect of a detainee's fate.
"The immigration bureau controls everything from the visas for foreigners, their detention and deportation and their provisional release. There needs to be a third party to provide a different perspective, and that could be the court," he said.
The Immigration Services Agency has proposed some changes following Rathnayake's death.
In the August report, it said it would look to strengthen the medical care offered at immigration detention facilities and potentially allow sick detainees to be temporarily freed.
It also floated plans to evaluate the behavior of immigration officers, including allegations by detainee advocates.
For Rathnayake's sisters, the mental strain of fighting for justice has taken its toll.
Wishma's younger sister Wayomi, 29, returned to Sri Lanka in late October owing to psychological stress caused by watching the footage of her sister in detention.
But for Poornima Rathnayake, who has stayed in Japan, the fight goes on.
"We want those responsible for Wishma's death to be held accountable because we hope this kind of untimely death won't ever happen to anyone again," she said.
    "Tomorrow it could be someone else's brother, sister, friend, mother or father."

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/04/asia/japan-immigration-detention-wishma-death-hnk-intl-dst/index.html

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