OSAKA -- Amid concerns over allegations of human rights abuses at the West Japan Immigration Detention Center in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, local nongovernmental organizations will form an immigration watchdog group later this month.
The formation of the group comes just over a year after the NGOs started receiving reports that detainees at the center had been mistreated and that conditions there are exceptionally harsh when compared with those at equivalent centers in Tokyo.
In mid-April, immigration authorities at the center refused to respond to questions by Osaka-based NGOs over the treatment of detainees.