Japan must reform its refugee and immigration system to avoid further tragedies

By Boram Jang, East Asia Researcher at Amnesty International

When Wishma Sandamali travelled from her native Sri Lanka to Japan shortly before her 30th birthday, she arrived with a dream of a new life teaching English.

Less than four years later, on March 6, 2021, Wishma died in an immigration detention centre in Nagoya, where she had languished for months, visibly unwell.

She is reported to be the 18th person to die in such a facility since 2007 — a victim of draconian immigration laws in what may be the developed world’s least welcoming country for refugees and migrants.

Read the full article in The Mainichi