Tokyo High Court rejects Turkish Kurd's appeal for asylum

The Japan Times: Sept. 29, 2005 By MASAMI ITO, Staff writer

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal filed by a Kurdish asylum seeker to revoke a Justice Ministry decision to deny him refugee status.

Erdal Dogan, a 31-year old Turkish Kurd, filed the lawsuit in May 2002 after the Justice Ministry's Immigration Bureau refused to grant him refugee status in 2000. His appeal to immigration was rejected in September 2001.

The Tokyo District Court dismissed his case in February.

In handing down the decision, presiding Judge Yoshinori Ishikawa said he supported the first ruling, which stated that the situation in Turkey had changed with the spread of democracy there.

"In 2002, the Turkish legislature approved of the removal of the ban on Kurdish broadcasts, and since June 2004, TV programs and radio shows in Kurdish have also been aired," Ishikawa said.

Dogan plans to file an appeal with the Supreme Court.

Lawyer Takeshi Ohashi said at a news conference after the ruling that Dogan might be detained by immigration officials the next time he goes for the monthly renewal of his provisional release, which currently allows him to stay in Japan.

However, Ohashi said the Tokyo High Court in June ordered deportation procedures halted until Dogan's status was finalized.

Dogan told the press briefing that human rights violations against Kurds continue in Turkey, noting: "10,000 Kurds are still detained and thousands are being forced to flee from their homes. (The problems) have not ended. I am asking (Japan) not to put me and my family's lives in danger."

Dogan arrived in Japan in 1999 and applied for refugee status later the same year, saying he feared persecution for ethnic and religious reasons if he returned to his homeland. Japan has never given a Turkish Kurd refugee status, according to lawyer Ohashi.

Last summer, the Dogans, a family of five, and another Kurdish family from Turkey staged a sit-in in front of United Nations University in Tokyo to protest the government's systemic refusal to recognize refugees.