According to KurdPress, Murat Çiçek, a theater and film actor and Kurdish refugee from the Hakkari province of Turkey, had been living in Japan since 2019. He was forced to leave the country due to political and security conditions in Turkey, and he always spoke of his desire to return to his homeland; a desire that, according to him, could only be realized if more freedoms were created in Turkey.On June 25, his car crashed into a roadside guardrail while returning from Yamanashi Prefecture to his residence in Saitama. The accident was minor, but after the police arrived, he was arrested for not having the necessary documents. This claim was later seriously questioned because after Murad’s death, the police handed over all of his documents to his family, including his passport, driver’s license, asylum application documents, and health insurance card, raising questions about the reason for his arrest if he had them.

Murad spent the first four days of his detention without access to a lawyer or friends. He was only allowed to meet with a Japanese acquaintance on June 30.After the meeting, the person said that Murad appeared physically healthy, although the police officers did not allow them to use English during the interview and insisted that they only speak Japanese, which Murad did not speak well.

A day later, he requested a medical examination due to severe abdominal pain. The detention center doctor prescribed only a painkiller. As his condition worsened, he was transferred to Hachioji Medical Center that evening, but after a blood test, he was returned to solitary confinement.

According to information later provided to the family by the police, no one checked on his condition until 5:30 a.m. on July 2, when his cries had stopped. He was taken to the same hospital again, but this time his vital signs were no longer present, and doctors pronounced him dead at 7:45 a.m.The autopsy report listed the cause of death as peritonitis, a condition that is treatable in many cases if diagnosed and treated promptly.

However, one of the most controversial aspects of the case is the delay of several days in informing his family, friends and lawyers. Murat’s family only learned of the incident a week after his death, through the Turkish embassy in Tokyo. This has led to speculation about how he was treated in detention and the reasons for the delay, although no evidence of ill-treatment or torture has been published so far, and Japanese authorities have not provided an explanation for these ambiguities. Murat Çiçek’s case, however, is not limited to the final days of his life. Many human rights activists believe that to understand this incident, one must look at the situation of Kurdish refugees in Japan over the past three decades.Despite a labor shortage and an aging population, Japan has one of the world’s strictest refugee admission systems. Thousands of Kurds who have come to Japan from Turkey since the 1990s have had their asylum applications almost all rejected. Meanwhile, the Japanese government has kept them for years in a status known as “Karihuman,” or temporary release, that is neither legal residency nor affords them basic rights. Those under this system were not allowed to work officially, rent housing, open bank accounts, receive health insurance, or even move freely, and were constantly subject to re-arrest. Many Kurdish refugees have described the situation as a form of “psychological torture.”In 2023, following the controversy surrounding the death of Sri Lankan student Vishwa Sandamali in a Japanese immigration detention center, the government revised its immigration law. The new law limited the number of asylum applications and made it easier to deport people whose applications had been rejected multiple times. Critics say the changes have increased pressure on asylum seekers, especially Turkish Kurds. At the same time, anti-immigrant sentiment, and particularly anti-Kurdish sentiment, has also intensified in some Japanese cities. In the cities of Kawaguchi and Warabi, home to a large portion of Japan’s Kurdish community, far-right groups have held anti-Kurdish rallies and targeted Kurdish families by posting photos and addresses of them on social media. Rights activists say the Japanese government’s response to these measures has been limited.Murat Çiçek’s death has become a symbol of growing concerns about the situation of asylum seekers in Japan. His family, lawyers and human rights groups have called for an independent and transparent investigation into the reasons for his detention, the medical treatment he received, the conditions he was held in, and the delays in his notification. Until these questions are answered, Murat Çiçek’s case will not just be seen as a death in custody; it will also become a symbol of the challenges facing Japan’s immigration system and the uncertain status of thousands of asylum seekers who have been living in limbo for years.