Japan, a First World country that has sought to maintain its unique cultural character by resisting becoming a refugee resettlement country, seems to have surrendered under pressure from the One-worlders to open its borders. Although Japan has been enormously generous to refugees around the globe, apparently that is not enough for the UN., which gleefully now has its big foot in the door.
Here is the whole sad story from Japan Today:
Visiting U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said Friday he hopes Japan will successfully resettle 90 refugees from Myanmar and other countries through its planned pilot program and become a ‘‘resettlement country.’’ While the number of the refugees Japan is set to accept is small, Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, said the significance is not in the figures.
‘‘For us, the numbers do not matter. What matters is the symbolic nature of this initiative,’’ he said at a press conference in Tokyo, adding that Japan will be the first Asian country to become a refugee resettlement country and the program’s success could make resettlement an effective solution to the refugee issues. Starting from fiscal 2010, Japan is set to annually accept 30 refugees who have fled the suppression of human rights by Myanmar’s military government and currently live in border camps in Thailand under the resettlement program. [By the way, what other Asian country with any money does Guterres have in mind as a refugee resettlement country, China?]
Guterres also said he has discussed issues surrounding Japan’s asylum system with Japanese officials during his two-day visit since Thursday, and that he was ‘‘extremely encouraged’’ by their attitude and the progress made so far.
The UNHCR is now working with the Japanese government to review and revise the Japanese asylum system, mainly over refugee status determination, possible alternatives to the detention of asylum seekers and assistance as well as protections to be extended, Guterres said.
Critics have said the system is too slow in determining refugee status and keeps hundreds of asylum seekers detained.
On that last point, see my post last month about those Rohingya Muslim asylum seekers in Japan.
We should have made a separate category for Japan because we have followed this controversy for some time, but if you would like to learn more, just type ‘Japan’ in our search function box and you will get lots more posts on the lead-up to surrender.