A/HRC/17/33/Add.3
development, education and health. Their parents should also receive adequate
support, as provided by the law, including financial support at least at the same level
as provided for Japanese children;
(e)
Central and prefectural governments should also increase their financial
support to foreign schools. Moreover, in order not to discriminate among foreign
schools, the Government should increase its subsidies to Korean, Brazilian, Peruvian,
Filipino and other foreign schools and apply tax benefits, in order for them to receive
the same support as other private international and Japanese schools. Finally,
graduates of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea schools should be granted access
to university access examination, as all other graduates from foreign schools;
(f)
Japan should increase its efforts to offer opportunities for migrants to
learn Japanese. In addition to its own programmes, the Government should consider
entering into a partnership with private companies employing migrant workers and
encourage them to offer Japanese classes to their foreign employees or to contribute to
a governmental fund that would finance such classes.
82.
With regard to the detention of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers:
(a)
Clear criteria should be established to limit detention to cases where it is
strictly necessary. Legislation should provide for alternatives to detention of migrants.
The Immigration Control Act should be amended to introduce a maximum period of
detention pending deportation. Under no circumstances, detention should be
indefinite. The detention of sick persons, minors or parents of minors should be
avoided;
(b)
Urgent measures should be adopted to improve the level of health care
provided to migrants in detention centres;
(c)
Training and other awareness-raising activities for officers in charge of
deportation procedures should be carried out in order to prevent violence during such
procedures;
(d)
The Immigration Detention Facilities Visiting Committee should be
given appropriate resources and authority to effectively monitor conditions of
detention and respond to complaints in a timely manner;19
(e)
To address discrimination against migrant women, a dedicated
governmental department should be established and effective measures should be
adopted. In particular, in case of separation of a Japanese-foreign couple, foreign
spouses should not lose their residence permits exclusively on the basis of objections
by their Japanese spouses. The judiciary should recognize and effectively guarantee
the equal rights of foreign and Japanese spouses with regard to children’s custody
and, in cases of domestic violence, where the victim is a foreign spouse, the rights of
foreign victims should be better upheld. Statistics with regard to judicial decisions in
this area should be compiled and appropriate studies undertaken in order to assess
the situation of separated migrant spouses and their children and to adopt
appropriate corrective measures.
19
With regard to detention irregular migrants and asylum-seekers pending deportation, the Special
Rapporteur refers the Government to the concluding observations addressed by the Human Rights
Committee to Japan in 2008 (CCPR/C/JPN/CO/5, para. 20) and the Committee on Torture in 2007
(CAT/C/JPN/CO/1, para. 14).
21