In Japan migration law tightened

By Alimat Aliyeva

The Japanese authorities have tightened migration laws, setting a limit on the number of attempts to obtain refugee status and allowing those who exceed it to be deported, Azernews reports.

Until now, foreign citizens undergoing a refugee status check could not be expelled from the country, no matter how many times they applied and for what reasons they did so. Now, in accordance with the changes that have entered into force, you can apply for asylum no more than three times.

If the applicant does not provide reasonable grounds for obtaining refugee status in such a number of attempts, he will be deported from Japan. The tightening of legislation is due to the fact that in recent years the number of people applying for recognition as refugees has increased. The Japanese authorities believe that some of them intentionally submitted documents without clear justification in order to stay in Japan and work. According to data at the end of 2022, about 4 thousand people in this situation lived in Japan.

The new rules allow foreigners who have been subjected to deportation proceedings to live outside places of detention, as required by the old regulations, provided that they are looked after by authorized persons.

Nevertheless, the changes have attracted criticism from the opposition and public activists. In their opinion, this will lead to an increase in the number of deportations of people who are still at risk of persecution and face other dangers in their countries.