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Ms. Obueza. Photo - thenewsnigeria |
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 traveling 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 labor
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 center. "Give me the right to help
people - don't put me in here."
During
her previous 10-month arrest in 2011 at a different center, Obueza organized
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 centers 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 meters, detainees say.
In
2014, a Sri Lankan man died in a solitary cell at the same center, 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."
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