国際社会（2023年3月20日）米国国務省の年次人権報告で批判されました。

E. PROTECTION OF REFUGEES
The government cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations in providing protection for and assistance to refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and other persons of concern.

Access to Asylum: The law provides for granting asylum or refugee status. The country’s refugee screening process was, however, strict; in 2021 the government granted refugee status to 74 out of 2,400 applicants. NGOs expressed concern regarding the low rates of approval.

NGOs, including legal groups, expressed concern about the restrictive screening procedures that discouraged individuals from applying for refugee status and led applicants to voluntarily withdraw their applications and accept deportation. They specifically claimed that the government’s interpretation of “fear of persecution” used when adjudicating refugee claims was overly restrictive and required absolute certainty of immediate danger to an applicant. The government stated that it reviewed each application; recognized refugee status based on the UN Refugee Convention; implemented an appeal process and a judicial review by an outside expert panel appointed by the justice minister and refugee examination counselors (composed of individuals who had knowledge and experience in law and international affairs); and cooperated with UNHCR to ensure it determined refugee status appropriately. The government reported that it took an average of four years to recognize an asylum seeker as a refugee, and some cases, such as those involving multiple applications, the process lasted 10 years.

Immigration authorities administered the first round of hearings on whether to grant refugee status. Asylum seekers were not allowed to have lawyers participate in the first round of hearings, except for vulnerable cases, including minors age 15 or younger without a guardian and applicants with disabilities.

In August, the government announced the granting of refugee status to 133 Afghans. The Japan Lawyers Network for Refugees reported that 98 of the 133 grantees were among the Afghans evacuated by the government in 2021.

Refoulement: By law the government may not deport those who are subject to deportation orders while their refugee applications are pending; however, they were commonly detained during this process, which can take several years.

On August 23, the Japan Lawyers Network for Refugees declared that during the year, authorities had repatriated some Afghans whom the government had evacuated to Japan after the Taliban’s 2021 return to power. The lawyers’ network suspected the government had not fully informed the evacuees of their opportunity to apply for refugee status. Earlier the government had declined the June 14 request of a national legislator to confirm whether the evacuees had been advised of this option.

Abuse of Migrants and Refugees: NGOs continued to express concern regarding the indefinite detention of refugees and asylum seekers and conditions in detention facilities. Legal experts and UNHCR noted that lengthy detention led to detainee protests, including by hunger strikes, generally intended to create a health concern that would warrant medical release.

Freedom of Movement: The government required asylum seekers to obtain permits from authorities in advance of any travel outside their prefecture of residence.

Access to Basic Services: Persons with refugee status faced the same discrimination patterns and challenges often seen by other foreigners, such as reduced access to housing, education, and employment.

Durable Solutions: On September 28, the government accepted 29 refugees under a third-country refugee resettlement program for the year.

Temporary Protection: Outside the regular asylum application system, following Russia’s full-scale February invasion of Ukraine, as of November, the government had admitted 2,143 Ukrainian evacuees, 74 percent of whom were girls and women. The government allowed these individuals to reside in Japan on a temporary basis, with the ultimate length of stay still undetermined. The government provided them with accommodation, job placement services, and other assistance. The government also provided temporary protection to 580 other individuals in 2021 who may not qualify as refugees. Among them, 498 were Burmese brought in under the government’s emergency evacuation measure in response to the February 2021 military coup in Burma. The government granted permission to stay based on situations in their home countries to another 27 individuals, from Syria, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, and China. The remaining 55 were married to Japanese citizens or had custody of their children. They may live in the community and work for limited hours.

Most of approximately 380-400 Rohingya were also living in the country under special stay permits on humanitarian visas based on ethnic and religious persecution in Burma, according to Burmese Rohingya Association in Japan President Zaw Min Htut. Htut stated 26 Rohingya have been granted refugee status since 2002, including eight Rohingya who were granted refugee status during the year, and 10 Rohingya asylum seekers were out of detention centers on temporary release but have not been permitted to work and could be detained again.