According to the “Japan to limit No. of asylum claims one can make to speed up deportations” (April 5, 2024 KYODO NEWS), the Immigration Services Agency announced on the 5th that based on the revised Immigration Control and Refugee Act enacted last year, the operations will begin on June 10th, including the third-time refugee applicants to deportation.
Key points of the 2023 Immigration Control Act revision
The main points of the amendments to the Immigration Control Law revised last year are as follows.
- Establishment of a “complementary protected person” certification system
- Establishment of special permission to stay application procedures
- (Solving the issue of avoiding deportation) Creating exceptions to the suspension of deportation effect
- Creation of supervision measures to proceed with deportation procedures without detention
This article corresponds to point 3 above; under the current law, deportation is uniformly suspended as many times as possible while applying for refugee recognition (= deportation suspension effect), but the idea is to create exceptions for those who apply for the third times or more, who have a previous conviction of 3 years or more, and terrorists, etc. (The deportation will be suspended if the person submits “documents that provide reasonable grounds” for recognition as a refugee, etc.)
Background of the law amendment (creation of exceptions to the suspension of deportation)
Currently, the standing point of the Ministry of Justice is that most of the number of applicants for refugee recognition (2,413 in FY2021) are not actually refugees. The background to this amendment is that repeated applications for refugee recognition have led to cases of crimes committed by people trying to avoid deportation, leading to abuse of the refugee recognition system.
Criticism against the law amendment (creation of exceptions to the suspension of deportation effect)
The amendment to the law has been criticized from various groups, but the main points regarding the creation of exceptions to the suspension of deportation are as follows.
- The problem is that the refugee recognition rate (nearly 0%) is far from international standards, and it is strange that the third application is an abuse. (Daini Tokyo BAR Association)
- There are many applicants who remain in detention, and there are cases in which they are approved even after multiple applications.(Japan Association for Refugees)
- It is essential to create a track record that can be evaluated as protecting the refugee applicants who should be protected, and if there is a mistake in the refugee recognition decision, there will be irreversible consequences.(Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan)
Summary
It can be said that the Ministry of Justice’s view is that “people” are pretending to be refugees, and the counterargument to this is that the “country” is pretending to have a refugee protection system.
As mentioned in this blog post, “Refugees and special permission“, the guidelines for the newly established special permission to stay system require humanitarian consideration (especially if the foreign national is subject to an refugee or complementary protection) in the examination .
While recognizing that there are various issues with the refugee recognition system, I sincerely hope that the immigration administration will pay sufficient attention to the protection of the human rights of foreigners, including the use of the special permission for residence system.