Japan, which is reluctant to accept foreigners, today welcomed 20 Ukrainian refugees who escaped the war and arrived at Tokyo airport on a Japanese government plane.
The refugees – aged 6 to 66, including 15 women – fled to Poland after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and arrived in Tokyo with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, who paid a multi-day visit to Warsaw.
Normally Japan receives only a few dozen refugees a year out of thousands of applicants and its borders are currently almost completely closed to foreigners as part of measures to stem the covid-19 pandemic.
“We have been informed that many people really wanted to go to Japan, but found it difficult to travel by their own means,” government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno told a news conference today.
“For humanitarian reasons we called on these 20 people to get a government plane,” he added.
So far, Japan has welcomed 404 Ukrainians, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announcing an emergency refugee plan in March.
Japan has imposed tough sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, acting in conjunction with other major Western powers.
The Japanese authorities have offered Ukrainian refugees a 90-day residence permit, which could be converted into a one-year residence permit, allowing them to work in Japan.
Tokyo also announced $ 100 million in humanitarian aid, in addition to the $ 100 million it offered in March to Ukraine and neighboring countries affected by the crisis.
In 2020, Japan granted residence permits to just 47 refugees and another 44 people for humanitarian reasons out of the nearly 4,000 who had applied.
Human rights groups have long accused Tokyo of not doing enough to help people seeking refuge from conflict.
SOURCE: AMPE
Source: Capital
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