Japan recognized 1,661 'quasi-refugees' in 2024
- Hge News
- Mar 15
- 1 min read
The Immigration Services Agency has said in a report that it recognized 1,661 people as "quasi-refugees" in 2024, with Ukrainians accounting for more than 90% of them.
On top of the 1,618 Ukrainians, 17 people from Syria, 13 from Myanmar, 11 from Sudan, and one each from Afghanistan and Uzbekistan were given protection by Japan under the quasi-refugee system, which the country launched in December 2023 to shelter conflict-displaced people other than refugees, the agency said Friday.
Meanwhile, the agency said it ordered 17 foreign nationals to leave the country under a rule enacted in June last year that enables forced deportations of those who had applied for refugee status three times or more.
Previously, applicants for refugee status had not been repatriated without exception.
According to the report, the number of refugee status applicants stood at 12,373, down 10% from 2023.
Among them, 2,455 were from Sri Lanka, 2,128 from Thailand and 1,223 from Turkey.
The number of those who gained the status fell 40% to 190, including 102 from Afghanistan, 36 from Myanmar and 18 from Yemen.
As of the end of 2024, the number of foreign residents was 3,768,977, up 10.5% from a year earlier, setting a new record for the third consecutive year.
Of the total, 873,286 were from China, 634,361 from Vietnam, 409,238 from South Korea, and 341,518 from the Philippines.
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