(Taken from BBC News)
In a cramped apartment in Tokyo, volunteers are teaching Burmese asylum seekers how to make clothes combining Japanese fashion with their own traditional embroidery.
They hope the project will give women like Lu [not her real name] a way to make ends meet.
It has been three years since Lu fled Burma, leaving her husband and children behind. She claimed asylum on arrival in Tokyo and was sent straight to an immigration detention centre where she spent almost a year.
Two years on she is still waiting for a final decision on her status. Every day is a struggle to get by. Like many people claiming asylum in Japan, she is denied government financial aid but also banned from getting a job.
“I’m not allowed to work, but if I don’t work I can’t live. I get no financial assistance, I’m supporting myself.”
When asked about her experience in Japan, she is visibly upset.
“I love my country but I couldn’t stay there,” she says.
“When I came here, I believed that because Japan is a democracy they would welcome me, because I’m a refugee. But it hasn’t. I’m really afraid for my future. I feel very sad.”
Japan is one of the largest single donors providing financial aid and assistance to refugees overseas.
But critics say that is in stark contrast to the reception given to asylum seekers at home.
Last year the world’s second-largest economy granted refugee status to just 57 people – a tiny number compared to most other wealthy countries. But it is still an almost four-fold increase on 10 years ago.
Another 360 people were given special residence permits on humanitarian grounds, but with fewer rights and benefits than fully recognised refugees.
Read the rest of the story here.
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