Detained Sri Lankan ‘treated like a dog,’ says family after seeing video
Posted on August 12th, 2021
Courtesy Japan Today
TOKYO
The family of a Sri Lankan woman who died in March following mistreatment at a Japanese immigration center said she was “treated like a dog” after the government disclosed Thursday security camera footage of her final days.
Two weeks’ worth of video footage showing Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali, 33, before her death was edited to around two hours, but her family members, shocked by the content, could only get through around half of it after saying they felt unwell.
“Our sister was murdered. Anyone could see that her condition was deteriorating. She was not treated like a human being. We want to see the whole video, not just a part of it,” Wishma’s younger sister Wayomi, 28, told reporters as she wept loudly.
Wishma’s other younger sister Poornima, 27, said at a press conference that officials had treated Wishma “like a dog,” adding that “she could have been cured if they had hospitalized her temporarily.”
According to Shoichi Ibusuki, a lawyer for the family, both Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Shoko Sasaki, head of the Immigration Services Agency of Japan, had met with the family and apologized earlier in the day.
“I pray her soul will rest in peace. I am sorry she was not able to return home to her mother,” Sasaki was quoted as saying.
The agency said Sasaki also explained an investigative report released Tuesday to the family, who had protested that officials at the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau in Aichi Prefecture, where Wishma was detained, had gotten off too lightly with only reprimands.
Selected parts of the security camera footage of Wishma’s last days were then disclosed to the family, including scenes of her talking with other detainees and being mocked by immigration officers.
Ibusuki had requested that the agency release the whole video, but the agency responded it would be “logistically difficult” to show two weeks’ footage, adding it would consider requests to view specific parts.
The agency had at first refused to disclose the footage to the family citing security but later changed its policy for humanitarian reasons out of consideration for the family.© KYODO
August 14th, 2021 at 7:27 am
I being married to Japanese/Chinese know how it is to live there, yet they are good people and it will take decades for them to accept us, just I went trough as a student in UK.It took decades for them to accept us as equals. What help us to gain respect and fair treatment is if our people impress on them by holding high professions or doing a good business in their country. Sadly all they see on as is that we go there and work as domestics.
Yesterday there were two incidents I encountered which was a coincidence. Knowing that that Chinese community here are hardworking,went to china town to see the possibility of buying a retail shop to rent. Only people who were willing to talk to me was the girls from the massage parlours. All I wanted to find out is the rents they are paying for their premises but sadly they did not reveal or converse about finding a rental premises and how much they pay as rent, others were outright cold and even hostile.These is because they don’t take us serious.
Few hours later I met a young man from a Gulf state near my home and was chatting for a while where I asked him if he could find a buyer for my property.He thought I was joking and wasting his time.I persuaded him to come into my house and have a cup of tea. Thereafter he realized that I own the blocks of houses in the very valuable area.
I told him to find an investor from his country for my property whereby I could use that money for investment, managed by a professional company, as my only sibling is not capable of doing the business I built up.
He was sad that he had a very different impression of me, as far as he knew where most of our people who go to their countries in the Gulf are domestics. He promised to peruse my request.
Most of these countries have a poor impression of our citizens, sadly as they only see domestics and low skilled going to work.UK too went through this sad times until likes of us proved with our jobs,our businesses that we are good as them.Gladly some of us are holding ministerial posts and thanks to the people in the country accepting us as equal, but we have to impress them with our positive contributions to the host country.
With this sad case it will waken the Japanese people and the authorities. May she rest in peace and her sad demise will contribute immensely to better conditions and better relations to the foreigners in that country. China too must do much for better relations to the people in the countries they do business with.