A/HRC/17/33/Add.3 51. Many of the detainees that the Special Rapporteur met suffered from various diseases, in some cases very serious, and the majority complained about not receiving adequate health care. They had not been allowed to continue the medication they had been taking before they were detained, and were given light medication instead, which was seriously compromising their health and possibility of recovering. For example, a detainee suffering from diabetes reported he was only given painkillers and his condition had worsened tremendously. 52. In terms of use of violence in detention centres, while detainees reported that they were treated fairly and were not subjected to violence, the Special Rapporteur heard cases of use of violence during deportation procedures. For instance, on 22 March 2010, the day before the start of the official visit, Abubakar Awudu Suraj, an irregular migrant from Ghana who was being deported to his country, died in Narita airport in Tokyo. He had been married to a Japanese woman since 2006 and had been held in detention for two years for no other reason than staying in the country without a legal permit. While the case is currently under criminal investigation, the Special Rapporteur is concerned that it may reflect the pattern of violence during deportation procedures, which has been reported to the Special Rapporteur. 53. With regard to complaints on mistreatments or lack of access to appropriate services in detention or during the deportation process, the Special Rapporteur was informed that detainees could submit complaints to the Deputy-Director of the detention centre, through an opinion box, with a further review of the complaints by the Ministry of Justice. No independent mechanism to monitor human rights violations occurring in detention centres and examine complaints was available at the time of the visit. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur positively notes the establishment of the Immigration Detention Facilities Visiting Committee in July 2010. The mandate of the Committee is to “ensure openness of treatment, and improvement of the operation of the facilities”14 and it is composed of independent experts from a variety of backgrounds, including academia, the legal and medical fields and international and non-governmental organizations. H. Deportation of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers 54. The Special Rapporteur found that the detention and deportation of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers had a severe impact on children. For example, in 2010, he was informed of a case of a Peruvian woman who had lived for 16 years in Japan and was arrested and detained with her 10-year-old child. They were deported the next morning without having the opportunity to meet their lawyer. The child had been born in Japan, attended Japanese school and had very limited knowledge of Spanish. In another case of a family who had been living in Japan for more than 20 years, with a 14-year-old child who was born in Japan and speaks only Japanese, a court ruled that since they did not have a residence permit, the father would be deported to Pakistan and the mother and the child to the Philippines. 55. The Special Rapporteur was also informed of cases of children who were separated from their parents as a consequence of their deportation. In the case of Noriko Calderon, the Immigration Bureau ordered the deportation of the entire family. Thereafter, it conceded special permission to stay to the child only, allowing her to continue her studies under the care of an appropriate custodian. Noriko, a 13-year-old girl who was born in Japan and went to Japanese school with very good results, was forced to choose between her right to 14 Immigration Bureau of Japan, “Establishment of the Immigration Detention Facilities Visiting Committee”. Available from www.immi-moj.go.jp/english/newimmiact/q_a_details5_english.html. 13