TOKYO - A prominent Nigerian
asylum seeker and activist is being held in solitary at a Tokyo detention
centre, a case that has highlighted a growing crackdown on foreigners living in
Japan without visas and prompted demands for her release.
Elizabeth Aruoriwo Obueza was
detained two weeks ago after authorities turned down an appeal against her
asylum rejection, Obueza and her lawyer told Reuters.
Obueza, 48, campaigns for
asylum seekers and the 4,700 people on "provisional release" from immigration
detention - a status that lets foreigners out from detention but bars them from
working and travelling freely.
Obueza's arrest is part of a
wider campaign by the Justice Ministry, which in September 2015 said it would
take steps to reduce the 60,000 foreigners living in Japan without visas.
People on provisional
release, many of whom have lived in Japan for decades, have been among those
targeted, activists and lawyers say.
"Elizabeth was targeted
and detained for being an activist," said immigration lawyer Shoichi
Ibusuki. "I want her released immediately."
The crackdown on people like
Obueza comes even as people on provisional release, despite being legally
unable to work, power Japan's construction and manufacturing sectors as
companies scramble to find workers in the worst labour shortage in decades.
"Elizabeth is held in
solitary because she's an activist and immigration officials don't want her
causing trouble," said Mitsuru Miyasako, head of the Provisional Release
Association in Japan, a group representing refugees and immigrants.
"Locking someone up
alone in a tiny room is to ruin them psychologically."
Naoaki Torisu, a senior
Justice Ministry official overseeing immigration detention, declined to comment
on Obueza's situation, saying he could not discuss individual cases.
Obueza, an evangelical
Christian, said she fled Nigeria for Japan in 1991 to escape female genital
mutilation and applied for asylum in 2011.
Obueza told Reuters she was
locked up for more than 22 hours a day. Typically, detainees at the Tokyo
Immigration Bureau, where she is held, are locked up for 18 hours a day,
according to the Justice Ministry.
"I want to help
people," Obueza told Reuters from across a security divide in a small
meeting room at the detention centre. "Give me the right to help people -
don't put me in here."
During her previous 10-month
arrest in 2011 at a different centre, Obueza organised detainees to write a
petition to immigration authorities calling for better medical care, Miyasako
said.
For more than a decade,
Obueza has visited immigration detention centres across Japan, helping
detainees navigate the asylum system and find legal help, said rights groups,
lawyers and former detainees.
"She has supported so
many people as an activist and that's a nuisance for the immigration
authorities," said Miyasako, who has worked with Obueza, adding that she
had helped hundreds.
Former detainees and people
on provisional release visit her in detention every day, sometimes waiting for
hours, he said.
Solitary cells, usually for
detainees who are ill, unruly or have tried to harm themselves, are about five
square metres, detainees say.
In 2014, a Sri Lankan man
died in a solitary cell at the same centre, highlighting problems with medical
care.
Isolation has not stopped
Obueza from fighting for detainees' rights.
"When I go outside my
room, I go around the windows and talk to the others," Obueza said.
"I advise them."
Obueza said of the
immigration officials who locked her up: "You might think you arrested me,
but I think God wants me here to help some other people."
