Video of Sri Lankan who died in detention to be shown in court

Wishma arrived in Japan in 2017 as a student but was taken into custody at the immigration facility in August 2020 for overstaying her visa

More accurately:

In August 2020, Wishma went to a police station in Shimizu, Shizuoka, to seek shelter from her boyfriend's domestic violence, only to be sent to a detention facility run by the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau. This was despite a 2008 directive from Japan's Immigration Bureau to its facilities to treat domestic violence victims with appropriate care and possibly grant them residency.

Wishma stated that she wanted to return to Sri Lanka, but she was put on a waiting list as she could not afford a flight home as commercial flights were unavailable due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After receiving threats from her ex and being offered potential accommodation from a supporter, she decided to ask to stay in Japan, and applied for provisional release on January 4, 2021, which was rejected on February 16.

More accurately:

In August 2020, Wishma went to a police station in Shimizu, Shizuoka, to seek shelter from her boyfriend's domestic violence, only to be sent to a detention facility run by the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau. This was despite a 2008 directive from Japan's Immigration Bureau to its facilities to treat domestic violence victims with appropriate care and possibly grant them residency.

Wishma stated that she wanted to return to Sri Lanka, but she was put on a waiting list as she could not afford a flight home as commercial flights were unavailable due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After receiving threats from her ex and being offered potential accommodation from a supporter, she decided to ask to stay in Japan, and applied for provisional release on January 4, 2021, which was rejected on February 16.

You did a better job than that reporter.

"...Wishma, who was detained for overstaying her visa in 2020, died after complaining of ill health, including vomiting and stomachaches, for around a month."

It is such a sad case that we pray and hope it will never be repeated. So far, being a foreigner, being Brazilian, not speaking Japanese at all I have been treated with respect by all in Japan, including Immigration. It was a very unfortunate event that hope became a landmark, a turning point, may the people who failed repent and confess their fault and the appropriate laws be fully applied. My deepest condolences to the family of this tragic event.

@MiuraAnjinToday  04:54 pm JST

Hey hey hey, you can't only include the good stuff. Include the part where she's has violated her visa in both duration and purpose. Or include the part where they can't substantiate her claims of abuse. Or the clear question of why she wants to stay in Japan to be safe from her purported abuser ... in Japan!

This is great news!

There is no excuse for what happened to this poor girl.

It's not your country so go home if you don't like it is not an excuse in any modern day society I respect.

@Kazuaki Shimazaki

Whether those details you add are correct or not, they don't have any bearing on the legal and ethical responsibility of care a detention center has for its inmates. Responses like yours reek of victim-blaming.

You'd have to be blind and stupid not to be aware of the many systemic failings of this particular detention center, and the institution as a whole in Japan. It's desperately in need of reform from top to bottom.

She overstayed her visa and we all know how strict Japan is with things like that. Why she was denied medical treatment while in detention is anyone’s guess. We don’t know why she died and, if I remember correctly, her family did not allow an autopsy so we will never know if early medical treatment would have saved her or not. It sounds like the Japanese immigration detention facility is culpable but are detainees in similar facilities in the US or Christmas Island in Australia treated any better? I don’t think so.

Requite required to connect with reality

“ Until now, the government has expressed reluctance to let the footage be shown on

embarrassment grounds. “

Kazuaki ShimazakiToday  06:40 pm JST

*@MiuraAnjin**Today  04:54 pm JST*

Hey hey hey, you can't only include the good stuff. Include the part where she's has violated her visa in both duration and purpose. Or include the part where they can't substantiate her claims of abuse. Or the clear question of why she wants to stay in Japan to be safe from her purported abuser ... in Japan!

That she supposedly violated Japan's immigration laws is completely irrelevant. As someone inside the facility, regardless of how they got there, everyone is entitled to basic medical care. She was denied medical care for over a month, You know, it's called human rights. Ever heard of it. Even criminals in jail have human rights.

Sorry , “ requote ”

This kind of thinking “she overstayed her visa” is nonsense to me. When it is others from poor economies it is law. Do you know humans are curious and adventurous? What would have moved the Europeans to move to Africa in the earlier centuries? Who gave them visa? If Japan don’t want people to overstay their visas they should not give visas anyway. Japan should close all its doors and have nothing to do with the rest of the world and no one will come here.So long as Japan makes strides in economic fortunes others will come and over stay their visas. Humans were not created because of laws rather laws are made because of humans and laws must not enslave us. If the gays and lesbians have rights why not overstayers of visas?

If Japan don’t want people to overstay their visas they should not give visas anyway. Japan should close all its doors and have nothing to do with the rest of the world and no one will come here.

Tell that not only to Japan but to all of those countries issuing visa, then.

The treatment she received at the hands of the immigration staff would have been totally different had she had white skin. The institutional racism in Japan is so obvious. If this woman had been a US, UK, or Canadian citizen, for sure they would have taken greater care of her.

This article is about a death in a Japanese detention centre....other countries" are totally irrelevant to this topic. Nice attempt to divert though as usual.

Issuing so-called Visa is not only about Japan but is internationally common system, and yet his point is

If Japan don’t want people to overstay their visas they should not give visas anyway. Japan should close all its doors and have nothing to do with the rest of the world and no one will come here.

See the basic contradiction? Nice attempt to segregate and bash Japan as usual

@Shimazaki-san,

Wishma's ex-boyfriend has not confessed to abusing her, thus her claims are considered "unsubstantiated".

Also, as you now know, she tried to go home to Sri Lanka. When this proved impossible she had two choices:

Stay in prison

She took the second option. Would you have chosen differently?

Of course it should be shown in court. What security grounds are there to suggest otherwise?Probably because it is the Ministry of Justice that is on trail. For too long in Japan the Ministry of Justice has been above the law.

Gaijinland,yes their is abuse in America Immigration,but people in US custody still have rights to get medical treatment

Correct me if I am wrong, but they have agreed to show a video that has parts redacted? I recall this was tentatively agreed some months ago, although I don't have a story to hand that proves this will be the case. Is anyone else aware of this? If true, you can be sure the incriminating video evidence will not be shown.

Requite required to connect with reality

“ Until now, the government has expressed reluctance to let the footage be shown on

embarrassment grounds. “

well, they're going to be embarrassed now.

And yet they are still trying to show an edited “for their own safety “ version … why have the judges if they can’t do their job directly.

They are trying everything to wriggle out of this.

Sri Lanka needs to take Japan to task publicly on the government side and keep this in the international community face

Sri Lanka needs to take Japan to task publicly on the government side and keep this in the international community face

agree 100%.

The treatment she received at the hands of the immigration staff would have been totally different had she had white skin.

Things that make you go Hmmm....

MiuraAnjinFeb. 16  04:54 pm JST

Wishma arrived in Japan in 2017 as a student but was taken into custody at the immigration facility in August 2020 for overstaying her visa

More accurately:

In August 2020, Wishma went to a police station in Shimizu, Shizuoka, to seek shelter from her boyfriend's domestic violence, only to be sent to a detention facility run by the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau. This was despite a 2008 directive from Japan's Immigration Bureau to its facilities to treat domestic violence victims with appropriate care and possibly grant them residency.

Wishma stated that she wanted to return to Sri Lanka, but she was put on a waiting list as she could not afford a flight home as commercial flights were unavailable due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After receiving threats from her ex and being offered potential accommodation from a supporter, she decided to ask to stay in Japan, and applied for provisional release on January 4, 2021, which was rejected on February 16.

Your comment is one from reasons why sometimes is worth to read comments under published articles.thumbs up buddy!

Until now, the government has expressed reluctance to let the footage be shown on security grounds. Details on how to show the video, such as whether only to allow judges to see parts that may not be desirable for observers to witness, will be decided at a later stage.

The immigration, so called justice officials appear most suspicious in this case and a cover up could not be clearer.

Wishma arrived in Japan in 2017 as a student but was taken into custody at the immigration facility in August 2020 for overstaying her visa

More accurately:

In August 2020, Wishma went to a police station in Shimizu, Shizuoka, to seek shelter from her boyfriend's domestic violence, only to be sent to a detention facility run by the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau. This was despite a 2008 directive from Japan's Immigration Bureau to its facilities to treat domestic violence victims with appropriate care and possibly grant them residency.

Wishma stated that she wanted to return to Sri Lanka, but she was put on a waiting list as she could not afford a flight home as commercial flights were unavailable due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After receiving threats from her ex and being offered potential accommodation from a supporter, she decided to ask to stay in Japan, and applied for provisional release on January 4, 2021, which was rejected on February 16.

Your comment is one from reasons why sometimes is worth to read comments under published articles.thumbs up buddy!

To be added for even more accuracy:

She actually once rejected medical care suggested outside the center at the beginning of her detention.

She tried to contact her family for help but failed. Somehow her family showed up after her death.

There's NOTHING reported so far Sri Lankan embassy played any remedial actions wrt her case including security guarding against her ex 's threat to safely being deported back home.

Between Japan and Sri Lanka there's no deportation arrangement.

Japans so-called Ministry of Justice has been a monster out of control for many years. To be the law is to be above the law. Staff on the lower levels ie. Detention centres are arbitrary, get a little bit of power, it just goes to their heads. Generally speaking, judges are imbeciles. To equate a detained foreigner to national security shows that Japans MOJ has serious echo's of the 1930's.