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Japan weighs plans to deal with North Korean evacuees in case of crisis

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That's good but...

checking their identity and possible criminal records and expel those deemed a threat

How do they get these informations ?

13 ( +14 / -1 )

Japan has strict requirements for recognising asylum seekers

Actually, the requirements are exactly the same as any other country which has signed the UN refugee convention. That being a resonable fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, etc.

and accepted only three refugees in the first half of 2017

It's not surprising that people who pass through multiple safe countries and spend large sums of money to reach a particularly remote and prosperous country at the edge of the world are deemed not to have a reasonable fear of persecution in the vast majority of cases. If they did, one would reasonably expect them to have sought asylum in the first safe country they entered.

The situation with North Korea will be a very different if it destabilises and we see thousands of defectors come to neighbouring Japan by boat. These will be genuine refugees and Japan will have an obligation to take them in. It's comforting to know that Japan has kept space and resources available for these genuine refugees in the event that it's needed.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

This is a very simple answer. They will expel them all. I mean this is Japan we are talking about. How many refugees has Japan taken in in the past few years? a handful ? less ? Japanese citizens will not be happy to open the floodgates to a bunch of brainwashed N.Korean's. Its why most of them will have to be absorbed into S.Korea or China.

7 ( +11 / -4 )

How many refugees has Japan taken in in the past few years? a handful ? less ? 

The answer is all of them. Japan has taken in every asylum seeker who has applied and been recognised as a convention refugee. No convention refugee has ever been turned away.

That said, it has turned away many people who were eventually found to not be refugees and had no other legal right to be in Japan.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

Judging by this in the BBC today, such refugees would also have to be medically examined.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42021373

3 ( +3 / -0 )

The government still can adequately help is own refugees I seriously doubt they could cope with 10s of thousands of North Koreans, without building camps.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Can't

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The correct solution would be to accept not a single one of these NK refugees. They should be accommodated and integrated with SK to build their united Korean Republic. It's not even worthy of discussion.

We already have enough NKs in Japan going to NK propaganda schools getting indoctrinated with garbage and learning to despise the nation and be ready for activation at any moment, who on Earth would accept more of that?

5 ( +9 / -4 )

Tell them to go to china. Easier to escape by land than by boat.

3 ( +8 / -5 )

Why do people keep insisting Japan to take refugees? If Japan doesn't want to let them, they showed not.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

should*

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Why do people keep insisting Japan to take refugees?

I don't, but Japan is a signatory of the UN convention relating to the status of refugees.

If Japan doesn't want to accept refugees, and my feeling is they'd prefer zero, they should pull out of the agreement. While they are still in it, you can't really blame other countries criticisng Japan for shirking their responsibilities.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

It seems to me the United States wants to create another wave of refugees in Asia, therefore

It's fair the United States receives all North Korean refugees.

-4 ( +4 / -8 )

@Jimizo

If Japan doesn't want to accept refugees, and my feeling is they'd prefer zero, they should pull out of the agreement. While they are still in it, you can't really blame other countries criticisng Japan for shirking their responsibilities.

But how exactly is Japan shirking its responsibilities? I don't think it is. As a signatory to the UN convention, Canada also takes in only those it recognises as refugees according to the convention criteria and turns away the rest. The UK does the sames. France does the same. Where is the evidence that Japan is doing anything different?

Many people point to the low numbers in Japan, but this is not evidence in itself that Japan is misapplying the convention. If anybody thinks that Japan is shirking its responsibilities, they must show that Japan is refusing to recognise people who clearly meet the convention criteria. The NGOs and refugee advocacy groups help countless refugees put forward their asylum claims, so they of all people could show us a few hundred or thousand cases that have been unjustifiably refused. We never hear about those individual cases of injustice do we? It's always just a complaint about the low numbers themselves.

The fact that Japan refuses so asylum claims puts them in a very unique position to actually test the correctness of their refugee determinations. Every year Japan deports countless failed asylum seekers who insist that they will be killed, tortured, imprisoned or disappeared the minute that they set foot back in Nepal or Turkey, Bangladesh etc. This does not appear to have ever happened, ever. If it did, the NGOs and refugee advocates would have a field day with the news and you would hear about it constantly in every article. The inescapable conclusion is that Japan is making proper determinations on refugee status in the vast majority of cases.

I think the real issue for refugee advocates (which they have a hard time articulating) is that they just don't like the inherent restrictiveness of the convention criteria, and the fact that Japan is applying it faithfully. They want Japan to give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to proving persecution, as many European countries now do, and recognise anybody who is simply down on their luck or has suffered misfortune of some sort or another. This is not what Japan agreed to when they signed the UN Refugee Convention.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

Gee, no one is blaming china or Russia or S.Korea for not taking in enough refugees. Despite the fact that these countries have large enough land to house these people.

And what about all those rich Arab nations like UAE & Saudi Arabia? They have the land, they have the money and have similar cultures, religions, eating habits of these refugees. Yet no one blames them for not taking in enough refugees but everyone keeps jumping on Japan ...despite the fact that it has much smaller livable land and already has over 120million people crammed into an island.

And have you noticed that EVERY country that takes in refugees has had to deal with an increase in violent crime and rape of their women? Eg, Germany. Why does everyone want that to happen to Japan?

I think Japan is doing the right thing in NOT taking in refugees. Being "politically correct" by taking in refugees does not mean it's always the right thing to do...esp when the your own culture is the risk of being disturbed. Why would you starve your own family by giving away YOUR food to complete strangers who keep turning up at your house? And turning up by the thousands.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

"Officials would then decide whether they were eligible to remain in Japan, the Yomiuri said."

Hahaha! Right. Tell that to the Kurds -- ZERO of whom have ever been granted asylum. They'll be deciding for so long, and denying the refugees so much in terms of human rights, that they'll actually probably want to go back to the NK Japan would have helped put into crisis and war.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

It sounds like a step in the right direction . . . and hopefully, N Korea can work for a better peace with its neighbors .

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Japan will give refuge to probably 11 people out of 10's of thousands fleeing North Korea. Japan please check your previous record before making such claims. You need a big heart to take in refugees.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

OK, plans are good to have, but... what about how to deal with a Nuclear attack upon a Major city such as Tokyo. Fukushima wasn't exactly a good example of how Japan prepares for the Obvious types of Disaster.

I think if S. Korea were to be attacked by the North, then given the Wind direction, China would be a better option for evacuation.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

out of all those seeking asylum Japan accepted maybe 3. In a crisis? They'll up it to 6

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Why not build a refugee camp at takeshima

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

What can we learn about "detention camps" from history?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

We already have enough NKs in Japan going to NK propaganda schools getting indoctrinated with garbage and learning to despise the nation and be ready for activation at any moment, who on Earth would accept more of that?

If that is still true I cannot understand why the government allows it to continue. Shut them down for heaven's sake. Its crazy.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

There's a big difference to use the word defectors to evacuees. Many defectors from NK are now living in SK or China to compare the huge number of people to escape their country who are the evacuees. Japan won't be able to do anything authoritative (once prepared) if there will be no regulations, spaces, controlled instructions, or any preventive activities from Japanese citizens to accept them. One of the solution is to prepare many detention camps in rural areas with workshops and select them to work in agriculture as much those areas are majority populated of aged people. However, the government should organize very precisely to avoid the anti-Japanese movement that is infiltrated in Japan society that the govt. still allowing those NK schools indoctrinated of Kim family regime or the South Korean anti-Japan propaganda leading them to their side. This plan doesn't mean anything, manuals that will be useless if it will really happen. One of the way is keep them in rural areas and send them back when their country will be once normalized and acceptance as Japanese citizen to be limited as it is now.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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