Brickbat: Not Welcome

Wishma Rathnayake moved to Japan from Sri Lanka with a dream of teaching English. A little less than three years later, she died in a Japanese detention facility for illegal immigrants. An investigation found that staff had denied Rathnayake medical care over a period of several months. During her seven months in detention after she overstayed her visa, Rathnayake lost 44 pounds. Yasunori Matsui, the director of a group that helps foreign nationals detained in Japan, said he repeatedly urged officials to take her to a hospital or give her a conditional release so that supporters could get her medical attention. He said his requests were denied without explanation. After the results of the investigation were made public, the facility's director and other top officials were reprimanded.