A Sri Lankan man died while in detention at the Shinagawa Immigration Bureau last month after the guards apparently ignored his repeated complaints about severe chest pain, a supporters' group said Monday.
The death of Nickeles Fernando, 57, comes amid allegations that critically ill detainees are being neglected by the immigration service. It also attests to a tendency to disregard the rights of foreign detainees, lawyers and activists said.
"His death illustrates the immigration's outrageous belittlement of foreigners' human rights," said Takeshi Omachi, a representative of Provisional Release Association in Japan. "They probably don't care if foreigners die on their watch."
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