• The treatment of Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali, 33, by the Nagoya  Regional Immigration Services Bureau amounted to wilful negligence
• An investigation report released in August by the Immigration Services  Agency found that staff at the facility lacked an awareness of how to  handle crises

The family of a Sri Lankan woman who died in March while being detained at an immigration centre in Japan, filed a criminal complaint on Tuesday against senior officials of the facility, accusing them of causing her death by failing to provide appropriate medical care.  The treatment of Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali, 33, by the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau amounted to wilful negligence, according to her two younger sisters Poornima and Wayomi.  

The complaint filed by the sisters with the Nagoya District Public Prosecutor’s Office against the director and deputy director of the facility, as well as officers in charge on the day of Wishma’s death, states the director was duty-bound to take appropriate measures when a detainee complained of feeling  not well.  

Wishma, who came to Japan in 2017 on a student visa, was taken to the facility in Nagoya in August 2020 after overstaying her visa. She died on March 6 while in custody after complaining of stomach pain and other symptoms from mid-January.  

An investigation report released in August by the Immigration Services Agency found that staff at the facility lacked an awareness of how to handle crises, and there were problems with the centre’s medical and information sharing system. But as the probe could not determine the cause of Wishma’s death, her family filed the complaint to get to the truth revealed.  (Japan Times)