Family of Sri Lankan woman who died in immigration custody sues government

NAGOYA – Relatives of a Sri Lankan woman who died last year while detained at a immigration center in central Japan will file suit for damages against the Japanese government later this week, a source familiar with the matter said Tuesday.

The suit to be brought in the Nagoya District Court, possibly on Friday by the family of Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali, 33, will follow a criminal complaint they filed in November against senior officials of the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau for causing her death due to a lack of medical care.

Wishma, who arrived in Japan in 2017 on a student visa, was taken to the facility in August 2020 after overstaying her visa. She died on March 6 last year while in custody after complaining for more than a month of symptoms including stomach pain.

Her request for provisional release had been denied.

After her younger sisters came to Japan in May, the Immigration Services Agency of Japan said in an investigative report released in August that staff at the immigration facility lacked awareness of handling a medical crises, and that there were problems with the center’s medical information sharing system.

The report also said the probe could not determine the cause of her death.

The family filed the complaint with the Nagoya District Public Prosecutors Office against the facility’s director, deputy director and officers in charge on the day of Wishma’s death, saying the director has a duty to take appropriate measures when a detainee claims to feel unwell. The prosecutors later accepted it.

Following the report’s release, the immigration agency edited two weeks’ worth of surveillance camera footage showing Wishma before her death into around two hours and disclosed it to her family.

On Oct. 1, the family and lawyers watched a portion of the footage at the Nagoya court as part of evidence preparation.

Public criticism over Wishma’s death forced the government in May last year to drop a controversial bill meant to revise the immigration law that activists said would worsen conditions for asylum seekers.