Acting with
uncharacteristic speed, the Justice Ministry bundled
a Kurdish father and his son, both U.N.-recognized
refugees, onto a plane and sent them back to Turkey
on Tuesday, a day after they visited the Immigration
Bureau to extend their provisional release.
Cries and screams broke out in a room at the Tokyo
Bar Association as the message came through that
Ahmet Kazankiran, 48, and his eldest son, Ramazan,
20, had been forced onto the plane. The news was
received during a press conference held by the
remaining members of the deportees' family and
another Kurd family facing deportation, and
supporters and one of their lawyers.
The pair won recognition last summer during a sit-in
outside United Nations University to protest their
plight. |
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On Monday morning, the father and son reported to
the Immigration Bureau in Shinagawa Ward to apply
for an extension to their provisional release.
Before noon, it was announced that the two were
being detained. The next day, they were deported.
"My family has been obeying the law and has been
going to the Immigration Bureau," said Zeliha, 21,
Ahmet's oldest daughter. "We just wanted to protect
our lives. How could we be the object of such
horrible treatment?"
Kazankiran took part in protest demonstrations in
Turkey to stop discrimination against minority Kurds
and was once arrested and tortured, his supporters
said.
It is extremely rare for anyone to be deported so
soon after detention, said Takeshi Ohashi, the
lawyer present at the briefing.
"I am angered by the way (Ahmet and Ramazan) were
deported," he said, decrying Japan's apparent lack
of a human rights standard.
In Japan, very few asylum-seekers are granted
refugee status, with only 26 people, including those
granted special residence permits, in 2003.
The Kazankirans and Erdal Dogan and his family, also
Kurdish asylum-seekers, together staged the
two-month sit-in. The remaining 10 members of the
two families face imminent deportation.
The two families arrived in Japan during the 1990s,
and have since been seeking asylum due to concerns
that they might be persecuted back home. They have
been repeatedly turned down.
Immigration authorities have issued deportation
orders for all of them. But they were spared
detention under a provisional release.
The Kazankirans' appeal to have their deportation
orders nullified is still pending before the Supreme
Court.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
has recognized the Kazankirans as "mandate
refugees."
By deporting Ahmet and Ramazan, the Justice Ministry
has defied the U.N.'s position on the matter, lawyer
Ohashi said.
The Justice Ministry says a UNHCR decree is not
legally binding. But UNHCR senior legal officer
Nathalie Karsenty said she had never heard of anyone
being deported to their home country after being
acknowledged as mandate refugees by the U.N.
"It is of great concern not only for the two (who)
were deported but for the others in a similar
situation," Karsenty said.
Just last month, supporters of the Kazankirans and
the Dogans handed to the Justice Ministry a petition
containing more than 63,000 signatures backing their
bid for asylum.
Fumio Azuma, one of the leaders of the support group
and a teacher at a high school attended by
Kazankiran's two other daughters, Hatice, 17, and
Mercan, 16, expressed shock that the government did
not send the pair to a third country instead of
Turkey.
"After this, how will the girls look upon Japan?" he
asked. "I like the Japanese culture and wanted to be
proud of it. I wanted to show the girls that while
the government may be hopeless, there are people who
were willing to take action" for them.
The five remaining members of the Kazankiran family
are due to report to the Immigration Bureau on
Monday to apply for extensions on their provisional
release.
Karsenty said the UNHCR will monitor Ahmet and
Ramazan's return to Turkey.
A senior official of the Justice Ministry's
Immigration Bureau defended the deportation,
claiming the action means the ministry and the
courts have concluded that the pair are not in any
danger of persecution in their home country.
The official also said the conditions under which
the UNHCR gives a refugee mandate differs from the
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which
Japan follows.
Therefore, UNHCR mandate refugees are not
necessarily recognized as refugees under the
convention, she added.
The quick day procedure from detention to
deportation is not exceptional, the Immigration
Bureau official claimed, explaining that deportation
orders had already been issued and the law states
that deportees must be sent back to their home
country as soon as possible once the orders are
issued.
The official also said that because deportation
orders have been issued for the rest of the
Kazankirans as well, the family will be united once
again "if they are going to be sent to the same
country" as Ahmet and Ramazan.
The Japan Times, (C) All rights reserved
http://www.japantimes.co.jp
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