Japanese authorities abandon controversial immigration reform

The Japanese government has decided to withdraw the bill, designed to toughen the current immigration legislation, amid criticism from the opposition, as well as public and international organizations, Report informs with reference to the Japanese public television.

The revision of the legislation was intended, in particular, to allow the authorities to forcibly deport those foreign citizens who were denied refugee status three times. Critics of the bill insisted on the inhumanity of such an approach and condemned the impending reform in the relevant UN commissions. Rallies were held several times in Japan demanding to abandon the toughening of the country's immigration legislation, which, according to human rights activists, is quite severe.

A sharp wave of criticism against the authorities’ actions arose after the incident with a citizen of Sri Lanka, who died in March this year in a temporary detention center for immigrants in the Japanese prefecture of Nagoya. The 33-year-old woman was detained by Japanese authorities last August after it was revealed she was in the country on an expired student visa. Human rights activists insist that the death was the result of the refusal of the Japanese authorities to provide her with adequate medical care. The Japanese Ministry of Justice conducted an internal investigation into the incident, but its outcome was also heavily criticized - the opposition called it superficial and said that it missed key points related to the deteriorating health of the woman.