Tokyo Deported Two Kurdish Mandate Refugees: to Arrive Istanbul, 19:55 ＜Jan. 18, 2005＞

By Indymedia Japan

A Kurdish father and his son, who are recognized as mandate refugees by UNHCR, were today deported to Turkey from Narita Airport nearby Tokyo, at 14:25 (Japan time).

Despite the possibility of threats to their lives in Turkey, this was decided by Japanese Immigration authorities. Those deported are two of the Kurdish asylum seekers who last year continued sit-ins for weeks in front of the UN University in Tokyo and later got relocated to Tokyo Detention Center. The airplane, TK 51, carrying them will arrive at Istanbul on 19:55, Jan. 18th, Turkey Time (Jan. 19th, 2:25, Japan Time).

Their supporters and human rights NGOs in Tokyo that have assisted asylum seekers in Japan are now calling on actions against this decision by the Japanese Justice Ministry, as well as boycotts of Turkish products or leisure trips to the country. These groups tell that they will continue these campaigns until the lives of the two are confirmed guaranteed after their arriving at the other side of the Asian Continent.

Turkey has poorly succeeded in appealing itself as a potential new EU member state in spite of many time negotiations because its insufficient human rights standard, as well as low environmental standard, has barred itself from the historical joint with European neighborhood. Japan celebrating 2005 EU-Japan Year of People to People Exchanges has just chosen to line with the repressive side of the candidate, ignoring the mandate refugee status granted on two Kurdish men by the human rights department of the UN.

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