50 Cambodians received refugee status in Japan

Record high no. of refugee applications filed with Japan in 2011

February 25, 2012

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A record high 1,867 foreigners applied for refugee status in Japan last year, about 1.6 times the figure in the previous year, but the number of applications approved stood at just 21, down from 39 in 2010, the Justice Ministry said Friday.

The total number of applications in 2011 was the highest since 1982 when Japan began its refugee recognition system, the ministry's Immigration Bureau said, adding that the rise is partly due to an increase in cases in which the same person applies again.

As for the drop in number of approved cases, a bureau official said, "It's the result of screening each case. It's not that the requirements were toughened."

The cumulative total of applications filed over 30 years through the end of last November came to 11,754, with 598 of them approved, according to the bureau. Those recognized as refugees included 307 people from Myanmar, 69 from Iran, 59 from Vietnam, 50 from Cambodia and 48 from Laos.

Cambodia on track to become refugee model for Southeast Asia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, October 20 (UNHCR) – Many foreigners seeking to be officially designated refugees in Cambodia are having their cases heard these days in a brand new Cambodian Refugee Office at the immigration department, rather than at the UN refugee agency's office as over the past 14 years.

The decision on whether or not to grant refugee status still rests with UNHCR officers, in consultation with Cambodian officials, but the change of location is an important move – symbolic of this country's determination to take on new responsibilities in protecting refugees' human rights.

Cambodia is one of only two Southeast Asian nations to have signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, and expects within the next two weeks to formalize the legal framework for establishing its own refugee status determination (RSD) procedures – although the timetable for legal adoption of the measure is not yet clear.

"The transformation has started," said Thamrongsak Meechubot, UNHCR's representative in Cambodia. "Things are moving since the government agreed in June that it was prepared to take responsibility for refugee status determination itself."

"It is a big challenge for us," agreed Police Major General Thong Lim, director of the Cambodian Immigration Department. "We really need UNHCR's full support."

As in many countries that have not signed the 1951 Convention, or have signed it but not enacted legislation to bring it to life, UNHCR conducts RSD interviews in Cambodia jointly with government officials.

Maj. Gen. Thong said the government is finalizing a draft that will be sent to legal experts and the Cambodian cabinet for discussion before being presented to Prime Minister Hun Sen for approval as a sub-decree with legal force.

The new refugee office already has a structure in place under the immigration department, with 40 officers to be deployed at border points around the country as well as in the capital, Phnom Penh. Of crucial importance, Maj. Gen. Thong stressed, will be training in refugee law so that Cambodia can live up to international standards.

Even after Cambodia takes over responsibility for RSD, the UN refugee agency will continue to give technical advice to officials and ensure that international norms are upheld.

Maj. Gen. Thong said Cambodia was embarking on a whole new set of issues – how to tell people with fake claims from genuine refugees, and how to weed out terrorists and those fleeing justice from people genuinely in need of international protection.

Still, he thinks it is an important step in Cambodia's maturity following the conflict and upheaval it experienced from 1970 until 1993, and a way of honouring the refuge that so many Cambodians received in other countries during this period.

The government has given signals that the sub-decree could be signed before the end of the year, and Thamrongsak said, "We don't expect legal complications. We expect a system that has flexibility. We don't want to burden the Cambodian bureaucracy. We want to reinforce the Cambodian bureaucracy to meet international legal standards."

Cambodia, which signed the 1951 Convention along with a raft of other international treaties when it was under UN transitional authority in the early 1990s, can be a trailblazer for much of Asia in this field.

Says Thamrongsak: "UNHCR hopes Cambodia can be a model for the region," along with the Philippines, which acceded to the Convention in 1980 and has both a legal framework and administrative regulations to implement it.

By Kitty McKinsey
in Phnom Penh, Cambodia