Japan probing death of Lankan woman at Immigration detention centre

The Japanese government is probing the death of a 33 year old Sri Lankan woman who died at an Immigration detention centre in Nagoya, where she was being held for violating visa regulations.

 

Japanese media have reported the incident raising concerns whether the woman died due to negligence of the authorities.

 

Her communications with the authorities have been brought to light. The communications show that the woman was ill.

 

The Sri Lankan Embassy in Tokyo said yesterday said the woman had been in the detention centre for the past six months.

 

The Daily Mirror in Colombo said following the death, a team led by Minister at the Sri Lankan  Embassy Roshan Gamage had visited the Centre in Nagoya and met the authorities at the centre. “The authorities had promised us there would be an impartial investigation into the incident and assured us to give a full report soon,” the spokesman said.
 

According to initial investigations, the victim, who is from Gampha in Sri Lanka had arrived in Japan in 2017 as a student. However, Japanese immigration authorities had detained her in last August with the expiry of her visa. Later she had been moved to the Nagoya detention centre, which accommodates foreigners without status of residence.
 

Accordingly, the woman had continuously complained about the food that she was given at the centre and due to that she had become weak.
 

The embassy spokesman said that the immigration official had informed that on six occasions doctors had checked the woman and at least she had been admitted to the hospital twice.

 

“The cause of death is unknown yet until the authorities give a verdict on it,” the spokesman said adding that “we are awaiting the report and we already informed about this to the Japanese Foreign Ministry asking for an impartial investigation into it.”