36 Myanmar apply for refugees statu

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Subject: 36 Myanmar apply for refugees status

The Daily Yomiuri
(Tuesday, February 4, 1997)

Thirty-six Myanmar nationals asked immigration authorities
Monday for refugees status in japan, their lawyer said.
The Myanmars, who came to Japan after the country's junta
crushed the pro-democracy movement in 1988, told the Justice
Ministry's Tokyo Immigration Bureau that they will be persecuted
if they return home. Most of them have overstayed their visas,
Lawyer Shogo Watanabe said. So far about 50 Myanmar nationals have 
already applied for refugee status, but immigration authorities
have rejected the request.
Watanabe said the Myanmars should be given refugee status, saying,
"the Japanese government has looked on the military regime in 
Myanmar with optimism but the junta used strong-arm tactics to
suppress the pro-democracy movement late last year."

Information Committee
Burma Youth Volunteer Association-Japan