The morning after her arrival to Japan, Natalia was on the balcony looking out over the greenery surrounding the Arrupe and shedding tears. She was filled with unspeakable grief and sorrow, thinking of the forests of her hometown and the friends she had lost. That evening, after the rain, a large double rainbow appeared in the sky. It was a rainbow that seemed to heal wounded souls and broken hearts and pour hope into the divided land.

Alexei and Natalia have obtained residency status and have begun their lives as citizens of Kamakura. They have become accustomed to life at Arrupe and have started learning Japanese. Natalia, who honed her skills as a chef in Ukraine, sometimes serves us borscht, piroshki, brinchki (crepes), etc. We communicate with her using gestures and a translation app while living together.

We have been greatly encouraged by the growing circle of people who have learned about Arrupe for the first time through our support for Ukraine and have joined our network. At the same time, however, it is very complicated to think about the feelings of the residents from Asia and Africa who have been waiting for a long time to obtain residency status, during which time they are unable to work, their freedom of movement is restricted, and they have no access to health insurance. We strongly hope that the same treatment as the Ukrainian displaced persons will be applied to refugees and displaced persons fleeing from the rest of the world so that all can walk in dignity. May the rainbow of hope reach all!

Project Supporting Refugees from
Recovery to Independence through
Empowerment and Social Participation
After One Year of Activities

We started this project with various plans and hoped to create a place for refugees and help them recover.

However, when we conducted the activities, we realized that things did not go as planned. Each of the residents came to our shelter after having experienced pain in their home countries, isolation, economic hardship, and incarceration in immigration facilities after coming to Japan. We realized that the wounds they had suffered were far deeper and more complex than we had imagined and that they would be unable to “recover” easily.

We also found that participating in activities was not easy for the residents. Even imagining just a few months into the future for residents on provisional release was painful and difficult. So planning and executing events as a community and preparing for the future by imagining life after obtaining residency status was a challenge.

During the days when plans could not be implemented as planned, we were forced to reconsider what we had initially set as our goals, such as what “recovery” means and what the state of “independence” is.

On the other hand, we saw residents laughing with each other, saying, “Everyone at Arrupe is family,” and heard comments such as, “I look forward to meeting people,” and “I am glad I can do something to help others,” through their involvement with people in the community. After spending time with the residents who gradually opened up to me, we realized the importance of relationships with others and a place in the community again.

We believe that these results could not be seen with conventional commuting support or support that only provides housing but only with the form of communal living.

We have also noticed a change in the local residents as a result of our active involvement with the community. People who initially had a scary image of refugees or thought that the issue was something far away and had nothing to do with them have become more interested in the current situation surrounding refugees as they meet the residents.

We began to hear many voices saying, “I want to be friends” and “I want to do something about this issue.” These changes led to the submission of an opinion letter from the Kamakura City Council requesting the government to review its refugee policy and efforts toward the Kamakura Nanmin Kyosei Forum.

We have learned over the past year that “relationships with people” and “a place to stay” lead to “recovery” for refugees. At the same time, we have also seen signs of acceptance in welcoming refugees into our communities. We will continue our activities to create a society that accepts refugees.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the many people who have supported and cooperated with us in implementing this project.

March 31st, 2022
NPO Arrupe Refugee Center
All Staff

PDFファイル（3.3MB）はこちら

Kuruppo, a town coin, is part of Kanagawa Prefecture’s “SDGs Tsunagari Point Project” and was created in September 2019 as a tool for residents, stores, and businesses to connect through points to solve social issues. It is currently spread across 13 areas, including Tokyo, Nagano, Osaka, Okayama, Tottori, and Fukuoka prefectures, as well as municipalities in Okinawa Prefecture.

Kamakura City introduced the program in January 2021, and 5411 citizens and 197 businesses and organizations (as of January 21, 2022) have participated and used the program.

Alpe Refugee Center is also utilizing “Kuruppo” to help refugees in the center connect with the local community.

* Machi no Coin Management Company “Funny Corporation Kayak” wrote a cartoon episode and an introductory article.

■Episode Cartoon: “Smiles Brought Back by Machi no Coin” (Omoshiro Corporation Kayak)
A heartwarming episode about a Sri Lankan refugee who got his smile back after encountering the community currency “Machi no Coin” (Kayak Inc.)

■“A Connection and the Significance of Existence” given by Machi no Coin – The Case of Arrupe Refugee Center

NHK News October 2021 Initiatives Using Kurrupo

I believe that the expression of an opinion on refugee policy by a local assembly is a groundbreaking event. We hope that this movement will spread nationwide. The full text of the opinion letter is posted here.

Click here for the PDF file

Opinion Regarding the Need to Review Refugee Policy from a Humanitarian Standpoint

Although Japan is a signatory to the Refugee Convention, the reception of refugees is extremely low compared to other developed countries. The recognition rate has not reached 1% for a long time: in 2019, Japan recognized 44 people (0.4%) out of 10,375 applicants for refugee status, and in 2020, due to entry restrictions caused by the Corona disaster While the number of applicants plummeted to 3,936, 47 (1.2%) were granted recognition.

As a result of the strict interpretation of the Refugee Convention and that only “refugees in the limited sense” are eligible for protection, foreigners fleeing civil war and persecution, who should be protected, are in a difficult situation without being saved. For example, while many Kurds fleeing persecution in Turkey and other countries have been granted refugee status in other countries, not a single Kurd has been recognized as a refugee in Japan.

The United Nations and other organizations have long demanded that Japan’s immigration administration correct this situation. One criticism is the low refugee recognition rate. Another is the “detention of all cases” policy, which, in principle, detains foreigners who do not have the status of residence and are suspected of having grounds for deportation in immigration facilities, and the long-term detention without a maximum period of stay in these facilities, as well as the treatment that ignores human rights.

The Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Amendment Bill submitted to the recent 204th session of the Diet was effectively scrapped due to criticism that the truth about the death of Wisima Sandamari, a Sri Lankan woman detained in an immigration facility, has not been clarified. The bill was criticized by many for such reasons as the bill facilitates the repatriation of foreigners who are unable to return home due to persecution or fear for their lives and may cause serious disadvantages and human rights violations to those targeted; the supervision measures to be introduced to correct long-term detention in immigration facilities will preserve the immigration bureau’s large discretionary authority, and the bill will be used as a means of preventing the death of foreigners who have been detained in immigration facilities for a long time. The supervision measures to be introduced to correct long-term detention in immigration facilities will lead to the preservation of the immigration bureau’s large discretionary authority. Japan’s immigration administration, which has been repeatedly pointed out for its lack of consideration for human rights, must be fundamentally reformed.

Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, has approximately 500 provisionally released Kurds residing in the city. The city takes the impoverished situation of its Kurdish residents very seriously and submitted a written request to the Minister of Justice in December 2020, requesting work permits and health insurance coverage for those on provisional release. We understand that this is a realization of the philosophy of regional coexistence by the local government.

The city of Kamakura is also committed to regional symbiosis and aims to realize a society in which “no One is Left Behind,” which is also linked to human security, which the Japanese government has positioned as a major pillar of its foreign policy. In the city, there is also a facility of the NPO Arrupe Refugee Center, where refugees live, which has started to serve as a center for regional symbiosis, connecting refugees and the local community.

The Kamakura City Council believes that a country or society that is cold to refugees who are persecuted and seek asylum in fear for their lives is a country or society that is cold to all people, and requests that the following items be promptly implemented by the government.

1 Refugee Recognition

The Immigration Bureau should establish an independent organization in charge of refugee recognition, clarify the criteria for recognition, and create a system in which attorneys are present during the recognition process, in order to change the situation in which refugees who should be protected are not recognized.

2 Detention in immigration facilities

The current situation in which, in principle, all foreign nationals without a status of residence are detained in immigration facilities should be promptly changed, and indefinite detention at the discretion of the Immigration Bureau should be eliminated. The supervision measures introduced in the revised bill should be changed to those that position detention as an exception.

3 Problems of Poverty

Under the current system, individuals under provisional release are unsure about when they will be reincarcerated, and they are also unable to earn a living on their own. The government should make it possible for such persons to work if they are guaranteed by a support group, and provide administrative services such as health insurance on the responsibility of the government.

We submit our opinion in accordance with Article 99 of the Local Autonomy Law.

July 2, 2021

People from completely different cultures, who lived in completely different environments and with completely different ages and personalities living together; that is what life is like in Arrupe. 

In addition, refugees have many things to deal with, all of whom have a variety of backgrounds. 

There are times when we are grouped together and have conflicts because of the differences between Asian and African cultures, 

we fight over food preferences even though we eat together, 

we argue over how to educate our children, 

we have disputes over the rules of Arrupe as a whole every time, 

there are constant disputes every day, there are arguments and complaints, 

there are outbursts by one person because he/she has difficulty speaking the language and cannot argue, and so on… 

Such is Arrupe! But, 

Everyone always says 

“Everyone in Arrupe is Family.” 

We may fight, we may argue, we may ignore each other, 

But it’s over before you know it, 

And we laugh with each other and say, 

“We are all family.” 

We cannot communicate what they want to say to each other due to language barriers, but somehow we are all laughing together, chilling with each other, teasing each other, and having a great time… 

“Everyone in Arrupe is Family.”

It’s like a real family. 

Even if we are having a bad day, we acknowledge, forgive, and support each other, and this is the watchword of everyone at Arrupe. 

One day, I heard this story. 

Everyone at Arrupe is always talking about family, not really family, but like a real family, it’s important. It’s the only place we have.” 

Everyone in Arrupe has a history of running away from their home country, having a hard time at the immigration office in Japan, and being kicked out of the place where they lived. 

We are not a real family, we are strangers to each other, but I believe that Arrupe is an irreplaceable place we have finally found. 

“If I leave here, I won’t have anywhere else to go, so this is no time to fight.” 

He laughed jokingly when he said that. 

“Everyone in Arrupe is my family.” 

Behind that phrase,

I could see the complex colors of the various circumstances that everyone is burdened with, mixed with the warmth of the friendly place they have found at Arrupe. 

But… 

“The Arrupe family is funny!” 

Loud laughter that blows away various circumstances is echoing in Arrupe today (^^)