Last March the Japanese Government pushed through strict legislation, The Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act. The Act set a limit on asylum requests due to overcrowding in detention facilities. The new law also allowed temporary release of asylum seekers to a caretaker and sets to clear up the definition of refugee. The law was extremely controversial because of fears that once a person claims asylum, after two attempts, they could be sent back to the country they fled from.
Khin Maung Soe, a Rohingya, applied for refugee status in Japan. A lower court found that Khin Maung Soe’s ethnicity was an insufficient basis to consider him a refugee. Now in what is being called an “unprecedented” ruling by some, the Nagoya High Court has determined that as a result of the genocide being perpetrated by the Myanmar military in August 2017, “exists objective fact to feel fear of persecution.” Therefore, Khin Maung Soe should be recognized a refugee under Japanese law.
Japan, unlike many other countries in the region is a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention. Japan remains one of the largest donors to the UNHCR and remains a large donor to Rohingya causes in the camps in Bangladesh.
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