By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
TOKYO, Japan – An investigation conducted by the United Nations (UN) found that foreign migrant workers in Japan face racism and discrimination.
Japan has increasingly relied on migrant laborers from countries like China and the Philippines as a result of their declining population. However, the UN report found that some conditions the migrant workers face in Japan “may well amount to slavery.”
UN Special Rapporteur Jorge Bustamante, a specialist in international migration, said, “They [migrants] face racism . . . , exploitation, a tendency by the judiciary and police to ignore their rights and the overall lack of a comprehensive immigration policy that incorporates human rights protection.”
The UN report also highlighted that racism and discrimination based on nationality in schools, workplace, housing and health care are also very common in Japan.
Bustamante especially drew attention to the high rates of domestic violence against migrant women and children. He said, “Appropriate policies to protect and assist single mothers and their children who find themselves in this extremely vulnerable situation are lacking . . . .”
For example, large number of migrant children in Japan does not attend school. The UN is urging the Japanese government to increase efforts in helping these children study and learn Japanese.
There have also been cases where parents of children born in Japan who have lived in the country for more than ten years have recently been deported or detained, which resulted in children being separated from their parents.
The Special Rapporteur expressed concern that “[i]n accordance with the principle of the best interest of the child, families should not be separated.”
Furthermore, the UN investigation found that Japan has a policy of detaining irregular immigrants, e.g., asylum-seekers, parents and children, for extended period of time. In certain cases, some were detained as long as three years, which, according to the UN, is a “de factor indefinite detention.”
Japans’ Foreign Ministry has declined to comment, and Bustamante will represent his full report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in October.
For more information, please see:
AFP – Racism and discrimination common in Japan: UN envoy – 31 March 2010
Financial Times – Japan’s treatment of migrant workers criticized – 31 March 2010
UN News Centre – Independent UN rights expert urges end to migrant discrimination in Japan – 1 April 2010
