Mizuno: Any questions or comments to other panelists?
Domicelj: Japan will start a pilot case to accept refugees through third country settlement. Australia
also has a pilot program to provide counseling to the refugee applicants on appropriate legal advice,
living support and repatriation. We believe it is important to support asylum seekers in a way that they
can make decisions as to stay in Australia or return home at an early stage. Based on “Case
Management Principle”, we can support them with respect for dignity from an early stage, and this
program makes easier for us to provide support on resettlement for rejected cases as well as
repatriation support. We have a keen interest in the outcome of the pilot program in Japan.
Ishikawa: Australia accepts refugees for resettlement from various countries in evenly allocated
numbers. We would also like Japan to accept refugees from countries other than Myanmar. We would
like to work harder with South Korea, we can learn from each other and make improvements step by
step here. Pnan uses a Korean TV star as its goodwill ambassador and the IRC uses George Clooney.
JAR similarly hopes get various people involved.
Lee: The US and Australia are “advanced countries” for refugee protection but they are also “countries
of immigrants.” In this sense, they are different from South Korea. On the other hand, South Korea is
one of the advanced countries and shifting towards being a country of immigrants. South Korea can
learn from countries who have accepted immigrants. We have common ground with Japan in various
aspects, but we are behind by 10 years in terms of refugee acceptance and the number of accepted
refugees is one fifth of that of Japan. We would like to continue this friendly race with Japan in the future.
Petrie: NGOs in Japan, South Korea and Australia have a lot in common in terms of refugees’ human
rights and humanitarian aspects. However there are many differences in the governments’ policies. Though the number of refugees to be resettled under the pilot program in Japan is small, it is a very important step. We have a lot to learn from each other. The United States created its current model over a long period time. It is necessary to
apply this model in accordance with the particular conditions faced in each country.