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| Detention Area at Ibaraki Immigration Center |
A Vietnamese man died in a solitary cell at a Japanese
immigration detention center on Saturday. The Vietnamese detainee had complained of pain throughout his detention
for a week before his death, according to fellow detainees.
The death was the 13th in Japan’s detention system since 2006, a toll
that has provoked sustained criticism from activists and a watchdog
overseeing the centres about conditions prevailing there.
In a handwritten note seen by Reuters on Tuesday, six detainees said
the man, Nguyen The Hung, repeatedly told guards he was suffering from
pain in his neck and head after his arrival at the East Japan
Immigration Center in Ibaraki Prefecture in mid-March.
An official at the centre northeast of Tokyo, declined to elaborate
on a statement issued on Monday saying that a Vietnamese man in his
forties had been found unconscious there on Saturday and later
pronounced dead.
A Vietnamese nun helping to arrange Nguyen’s funeral, Tam Tri Thich,
initially told Reuters on Monday that the Vietnamese embassy in Tokyo
had told her that Nguyen had killed himself at the facility.
On Tuesday, however, she said she had misheard the information and
that in fact the embassy had told her only that Nguyen had died
suddenly.
The embassy did not immediately reply to Reuters telephone and email requests for comment.
Nguyen was prescribed painkillers by a doctor at the centre last
Wednesday, the detainees said in their letter, only for guards to ignore
his later complaints of pain and admonish him to be quiet.
A Reuters investigation into the death of a Sri Lankan held in a
solitary cell at a Tokyo detention center revealed serious gaps in
medical care and monitoring of people held in Japan’s immigration
detention system.
The cause of Nguyen’s death has not been announced. The centre and
the country’s Justice Ministry, which oversees the detention centres,
have said the authorities would perform an autopsy.
The East Japan Immigration Center held 297 detainees at the end of last year, according to the Justice Ministry.
Reuters
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