With the ordinary Diet session ending in two weeks, lawmakers are engaged in heated debates over a bill to revise the immigration law that could mean more deportations.

Currently, deportation orders are suspended for those without residency status while applications for refugee status are pending. But the revisions would allow authorities to deport them after two application rejections.

Ahmet Kazankiran, a Turkish national who was not granted refugee status in Japan and was subsequently deported, shared his thoughts on the potential revision.

DEPORTED DESPITE U.N. RECOGNITION

Kazankiran, 67, who is Kurdish, the largest minority group in Turkey, visited Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, where he used to live, in May. 

He came to Japan in the 1990s.

Kazankiran applied for refugee status on the grounds that he would be in danger if he returned to his home country because he had campaigned for Kurdish autonomy there.

Although he was registered as a refugee with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Japanese government did not recognize his refugee status. He had no residency status.

He lived with his wife and five children in Kawaguchi.

Facing deportation to Turkey, Kazankiran staged a sit-in protest with another Kurdish family for more than two months in the summer of 2004 in front of United Nations University in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward.

The following January, only he and his eldest son, then 20, were detained at an immigration facility and immediately deported. The family was separated.

SAFE HAVEN IN NEW ZEALAND

When Kazankiran arrived in Turkey, police interrogated him for nearly six hours, he said.

Even upon returning to his hometown, he was constantly under surveillance by security officials.

“I didn’t know what they would do to me,” he said. “I was scared.”

Two months later, he was able to reach the Philippines with the help of Japanese supporters. Through coordination with the UNHCR, he was accepted into New Zealand.

Kazankiran said he faced “no difficulty at all” in New Zealand.

His family, who had been in Japan, also moved at about the same time and spent six months in an immigration facility, learning English and about daily life there.

“There is a doctor in (the facility). If you get sick, they immediately take you to a large hospital,” he said, possibly reflecting his past experiences of suffering deteriorating health in a Japanese immigration facility.

Kazankiran said his family was provided with a house with four bedrooms. They also received living expenses from the New Zealand government for more than two years until his job situation stabilized, he said.

After that, the family started a restaurant serving Turkish dishes.

Though sales have decreased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they are still earning about 30,000 New Zealand dollars (2.6 million yen) per week and employing nearly 20 people, he said.

He added they had a Japanese employee on a working holiday visa.

“I haven’t calculated it exactly, but I pay a lot of taxes, too,” he said.

In 2019, the family purchased a large house. His children, who initially couldn’t speak any English, graduated from a university and are now independent, he said.

FLASHBACKS BUT ‘NOT GRUDGES’

When asked about his deportation, Kazankiran's smile vanished as he became choked up with emotion.

“I don’t hold a grudge against the immigration officials anymore. I’ve forgotten the bad things,” he said.

“In my judgment, 97 percent of Japanese people are good. There’s no other country like this.”

Even now, his Kurdish friends and relatives live in Kawaguchi and its vicinity. Applications for refugee status by Kurds are almost never granted in Japan.

Kazankiran is concerned about the controversial bill to revise the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law now being deliberated in the Diet.

Many Kurds would be affected if the bill is revised.

REFUGEES ‘CHOOSE’ COUNTRIES?

Japan not only accepts remarkably few refugees compared to other developed nations, but the approval rate for obtaining refugee status is also extremely low.

During deliberations at the Diet, some unsworn witnesses said, “there are not many genuine refugees fleeing to Japan” and “refugees choose countries.”

However, some of the Kurdish acquaintances Kazankiran had spent time with in Kawaguchi were taken into protective custody in countries such as Canada and Sweden after their applications for refugee status were rejected and they were deported from Japan.

Indeed, many refugees want to go to Europe or North America, but if they are Turkish nationals, they can enter Japan without a visa.

There are also many asylum seekers from African countries who arrive in Japan with no one to rely on simply because they “could only get a visa to Japan.”

Accepting refugees is an international responsibility.

"The way Japan treats refugees does not suit the world’s most democratic country,” Kazankiran said, grimacing and speaking in Japanese, which he still hasn’t forgotten.

DELAY IMMIGRATION BILL

The ordinary Diet session will end on June 21.

The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan tried to prevent the revised bill from being passed as many issues surrounding the refugee process have come to light.

For example, only a handful of refugee examination counselors who review rejected applications handle the bulk of the cases.

A female doctor at an Osaka immigration facility is also suspected of examining foreign detainees while drunk.

The revised bill already passed the Lower House on May 9.

Hoping to delay the vote in the Upper House, the CDP submitted a censure motion against Justice Minister Ken Saito on June 6 for what they say are inadequate responses to the immigration administration.

The Upper House Judicial Affairs Committee was also scheduled to vote on the revised bill on the day, but it has been canceled again.

The vote at the plenary session is expected to be postponed until June 9 or later.

The ruling coalition voted down the CDP’s censure motion on June 7 and intends to still pass the revised bill this week.

(This article was written by Nen Satomi, Kazumichi Kubota and Takuya Asakura.)