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Japanese Government to Begin Repatriating Trafficking Victims

The Japanese government, in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), will start helping victims of human trafficking return to their home countries in April 2005. The government's assistance will largely center on helping foreign women who would like to return home but do not have enough money to do so after coming to Japan on entertainment visas and being forced to work in the sex industry.

The government and the IOM hope to return 50 such people a year. In an effort to dispel international criticism that Japan has turned a blind eye to human trafficking, the government compiled a comprehensive action plan on the issue in December 2004. Helping victims of human trafficking return to their home countries is part of the action plan's main theme, offering victims protection.

As part of the plan, the government will take the testimonies of human trafficking victims, after they have been discovered by police or the Immigration Bureau or have applied for police protection. The victims will be granted special residence status in cases where they do not have residential status, then employment and accommodation in their home countries will be arranged in cooperation with other governments and nongovernmental organizations.