A Vietnamese
man held in a Japanese immigration detention center died on Saturday, six
people told Reuters, drawing fresh attention to conditions in the country's
detention
system.
The man died
at the East Japan Immigration Center in Ibaraki prefecture, northeast of Tokyo,
according to activists, a lawyer and a detainee held at the facility. Two men
died at the same facility in 2014.
The deceased
man was named Van Huan Nguyen and was one of more than 11,000 refugees that the
country took in over the three decades to 2005 in the aftermath of the Vietnam
War, according to two of the sources.
It was not
clear for how long he had been detained or why.
Nguyen did not
have relatives in Japan but had many friends, said one of the sources who had
known him.
"He was a
bright, fun person," she said. "I can't believe he died."
The Sankei
daily reported that the East Japan Immigration Center said a guard had found a
Vietnamese man in his forties lying unconscious in his cell alone early on
Saturday.
The guard
called an ambulance and the detainee was sent to hospital, where his death was
confirmed about an hour and a half later, the Sankei said, citing the center.
The
authorities would conduct an autopsy and investigate the cause of death, the
Sankei said.
The East Japan
Immigration Center and the justice ministry, which oversees immigration
facilities, could not be reached for comment on Sunday.
Reuters was
not able to independently verify the death or the identity of the deceased.
A Reuters
investigation last year into the death of a Sri Lankan at a different facility
in Tokyo revealed serious deficiencies in medical care and monitoring in the
immigration detention system.
Since 2006, at
least dozen people have died while in immigration detention, including four
cases of suicide.
Some detainees
are held for months and even years with no clear knowledge of when they will be
let out. Many develop depression and insomnia, detainees and psychiatrists have
told Reuters
*REUTERS*
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