Family of Sri Lankan woman who died in Japan detention demand release of full footage

The family of a Sri Lankan woman who died in a detention centre in Japan in 2021 is planning to file a lawsuit to demand that Japanese authorities release hundreds of hours of security footage of her last days to help determine the cause of her death.

The case involving Wishma Sandamali, who was 33 years old when she died on March 6, 2021, has intensified scrutiny of Japan’s immigration detention system. Rights groups have called for greater transparency and an end to prolonged and opaque detentions of foreigners under investigation by local immigration authorities.

Nagoya’s immigration agency has confirmed it possesses around 295 hours of video footage of Sandamali while she was in detention for overstaying her visa. However, the agency has only agreed to release five hours of recordings to her family.

Sandamali’s family has already filed a suit demanding compensation from the Japanese government for her death, claiming that she died because immigration authorities failed to provide her with medical care when she became unwell.

The government has defended the actions of the officials at the detention centre and claimed that medical examinations found no reasons for Sandamali’s poor health. Her family believes the footage that has been being withheld may shed light on the circumstances leading to her death.

A segment of the footage that has been provided to the family shows her falling to the floor from her bunk and pleading with two staff for help, the family’s Japanese lawyers have said.

Left untreated, she died a few hours later, the lawyers added.

Through their Japanese lawyers, Sandamali’s family members asked in February that they be allowed to view all the footage in which she appears. Nagoya’s detention bureau has rejected their request, saying the footage could reveal security systems in the detention centre and that releasing it could “undermine the maintenance of order”, national broadcaster NHK reported.

The family is taking further legal action on the grounds that the footage could be vital in determining how Sandamali died and has described the agency’s decision as “unacceptable”.

Teppei Kasai, an official with Human Rights Watch in Japan, said the government must responsibly handle Sandamali’s case and others like it.

“The authorities have a responsibility to ensure that her death in detention is investigated and to be transparent,” he told This Week in Asia. “Releasing all the available footage is one step towards securing that transparency.”

If the detention bureau and the government were concerned that releasing the footage in a courtroom could lead to security breaches, it should be shown fully to Sandamali’s family in a secure and private location “to address the security concerns while demonstrating transparency to the family”, he added.

Kasai also said the case should be used to highlight the prolonged detention that immigrants and asylum seekers were often forced to endure in Japan.

Sandamali arrived in Japan in 2017 on a student visa but later dropped out of her language school. She was taken into custody in August 2020 for overstaying her visa and held at the Nagoya detention facility. In January 2021, she began reporting health problems, including vomiting and dizziness, and lost more than 20kg before her death in March.

“The bottom line is that she should not have been detained for that long in the first place,” Kasai said. “And this is something that United Nations human rights experts expressed concern about when Japan reformed its immigration and refugee law two years ago.

“By detaining Sandamali for such a long time, the Japanese government was putting her at risk. The core issue here is the unnecessary prolonged detention of asylum seekers in Japan,” he added.

However, the case has also led to criticisms against overstayers in Japan and Sandamali’s family.

One message linked to a Jiji Press story on the case read: “How much longer are you going to keep making a fuss about this?”

Another said: “First and foremost, all illegal immigrants should be deported immediately and banned from re-entering the country. They are trying to squeeze money out of Japan at all costs.”

Despite the criticisms, Kasai said studies had shown that most Japanese were in favour of Japan accepting foreigners who were in the country legally.

“The people who go on those sites and write these things are the noisy minority. While that is a problem, it really does not reflect the feelings of the silent majority here,” he added.

Source: South China Morning Post
--Agencies