Wishma Sandamali death: Victim's family sues Japanese govt for damages

The family of deceased Sri Lankan woman Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali, who died in March 2021 at an immigration centre in Japan, is suing the Japanese government for damages, alleging that it failed to provide Wishma with proper food and healthcare. According to a report by BBC early Wednesday (July 19), Wishma's sister Wayomi said she would have not died if she got the right medication.

"We want justice for our sister. The Japanese government is responsible for what happened to her," Wayomi told the network, adding there should be a change in the Japanese system so that inmates in detention centres are protected.

Teacher went to Japan on student visa

Wishma, who was a teacher, arrived in Japan in June 2017 on a 15-month student visa, attending a Japanese language school in Chiba prefecture. She spoke to her sisters Wayomi and Poornima over the phone every day. Wishma later moved in with her Sri Lankan boyfriend, whom she met in Japan.

Citing an investigative report by the Immigration Services Agency of Japan in August 2021, BBC reported early Wednesday that Wishma stopped attending classes in May 2018 and was expelled by her school the following month. She then started working at a factory Shizuoka and applied for refugee status in September. However, her application was denied in January 2019.

And the following August, the woman turned herself to the police, alleging domestic abuse by her boyfriend. But Wishma was arrested for overstaying her visa and detained in Nagoya.

She had been in an immigration detention centre for seven months and died on March 6, 2021, aged 33. The investigative report said that she had been suffering from ill health since January 2021 and her condition began deteriorating.

Wishma was the 18th foreigner to die in Japanese immigration detention since 2007. The BBC report said that she lost 20kgin detention due to a stress-induced stomach condition, and was vomiting blood in her final days.

The report added that the 33-year-old repeatedly asked to be taken to the hospital and was granted provisional release, but her requests were denied.

'When we saw her...': Victim's kin recount seeing her body

When Wayomi and Poornima went to Japan in May 2021 to identify their sister's body, they could not recognise her. "When we saw Wishma, her face looked like our grandmother's," Wayomi told BBC. This was the first time they saw Wishma in two and a half years. They were unable to bring her body home because of Covid restrictions.

Wishma was cremated in Nagoya. The sisters attended the funeral, but their mother did not.

The investigative report in 2021 said that the staff at the detention centre showed a lack of awareness of human rights, and had failed to share details of Wishma's illness. The report added that some detention officers thought the detainees were faking illness to get provisional release.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, declined to bring charges against 13 officers at the Nagoya detention centre over her death.

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