TOKYO, June 27 (Reuters) - A Nigerian man died in a Japanese immigration detention center this week, an official said on Thursday, bringing to an end a hunger strike an activist group said was intended to protest against his being held for more than three years.

An inside view of a shared cell is seen at the East Japan Immigration Center in Ushiku, Ibaraki prefecture, Japan, March 19, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino

It was the 15th death since 2006 in a system widely criticized over medical standards, the monitoring of detainees and how guards respond to a medical emergency.

The man, in his 40s, died on Monday in the southern city of Nagasaki after he lost consciousness and was taken to hospital, said a detention center official who declined to be identified.

He did not give a cause of death.

RINK, a group supporting detainees at the center, told Reuters the Nigerian had been on hunger strike to protest his lengthy detention.

Another 27 foreigners are on hunger strike at a detention center in Ushiku, northeast of Tokyo, said a separate group supporting detainees at that facility.

Some of them have gone without food for 47 days, said Kimiko Tanaka, a spokeswoman for the group.

She said a 23-year-old Iranian man who sought asylum more than two years ago has lost weight and is using a wheelchair.

Two other men at Ushiku have been detained for five years, she said.

“The reality of a lengthy detention is nothing but a human rights violation,” Tanaka said.

An official at the national immigration agency confirmed there are hunger strikers at the Ushiku center, but he did not say how many. Authorities are providing medical care and trying to persuade them to eat, he added.

Immigration is a contentious issue in Japan, where ethnic and cultural homogeneity are deeply rooted.

Japan held about 1,500 detainees as of June 2018, according to the latest public data, nearly half of them for more than six months.

Some 604 were asylum seekers whose applications were rejected, while the rest were held for various immigration infractions such as overstaying visas. </s> A Nigerian, yet-to-be-identified, has died in a Japanese immigration detention centre, bringing to an end a hunger strike an activist group said was intended to protest against his being held for more than three years, an official said, yesterday.

 Sources said that his death was the 15th death since 2006 in a system widely criticised over medical standards, the monitoring of detainees and how guards respond to a medical emergency.

 The man, in his 40s, died last Monday, in the southern city of Nagasaki after he lost consciousness and was taken to hospital, a detention centre official said.

 He did not give a cause of death.

 The RINK, a group supporting detainees at the centre, said the Nigerian had been on hunger strike to protest his lengthy detention.

 Another 27 foreigners are on hunger strike at a detention centre in Ushiku, northeast of Tokyo, a separate group supporting detainees at that facility said.

 Some of them have gone without food for 47 days, a spokeswoman for the group, Kimiko Tanaka, said. </s> A Nigerian man detained at a Japanese immigration detention center has reportedly died after embarking on a hunger strike for several days to protest his lengthy detention.

The man, who was said to be in 40s died on Monday, June 24, 2019, in the southern city of Nagasaki after he lost consciousness.

According to Reuters, a detention center official who declined to be identified did not give any reason for the death of the Nigerian man.

But RINK, a group supporting detainees at the detention center made it known that the Nigerian had been on hunger strike to protest his lengthy detention.

Reuters reports that the death of the Nigerian man was 15th death since 2006 in a system widely criticized over medical standards, the monitoring of detainees and how guards respond to a medical emergency in Japan.

Another group supporting detainees said another 27 foreigners are on hunger strike at a detention center in Ushiku, northeast of Tokyo, Reuters reports.

A spokeswoman for the group, Kimiko Tanaka said some of the detainees at the centre have gone without food for 47 days.

She said one of them, a 23-year-old Iranian man, who according to her sought asylum over two-years ago has lost weight and is now using a wheelchair, adding that there are two other men at the centre who have been detained for more than five years.

She said, “The reality of a lengthy detention is nothing but a human rights violation,”

Confirming the claim about hunger strikers inn the Ushiku detention centre, an official at the national immigration agency said authorities are providing medical care and trying to persuade them to eat. </s> A friend of the man who authorities say died after throwing explosive devices at an immigration jail in Tacoma, Washington says that she thinks he wanted to provoke a fatal conflict.

Deb Bartley, who tells the Times she has been a friend of Willem Van Spronsen's for about 20 years, described him as an anarchist and anti-fascist, and believes his attack on the detention center was intended to provoke a fatal conflict.

'He was ready to end it,' Bartley told the Seattle Times. 'I think this was a suicide. But then he was able to kind of do it in a way that spoke to his political beliefs . I know he went down there knowing he was going to die.'

She says that she and other friends of Van Spronsen, 69, got letters in the mail 'just saying goodbye.' He also wrote what she referred to as a manifesto, which she declined to discuss in detail, the Times reports.

Van Spronsen was accused of assaulting a police officer during a protest outside the detention center in 2018.

The newspaper also reports that court documents say he lunged at the officer and wrapped his arms around the officer's neck and shoulders, as the officer was trying to detain a 17-year-old protester June 26, 2018.

According to court documents, police handcuffed Van Spronsen and found that he had a collapsible baton and a folding knife in his pocket.

Van Spronsen pleaded guilty to the charge of obstructing police, and was given a deferred sentence in October.

But on Saturday, Van Spronsen, armed with a rifle threw incendiary devices at an immigration jail in Tacoma.

He was killed after four police officers arrived and opened fire.

The Tacoma Police Department said the officers responded at about 4am to the privately run Tacoma Northwest Detention Center, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security detention facility that holds migrants pending deportation proceedings.

The detention center has also held immigration-seeking parents separated from their children under President Donald Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy, an effort meant to deter illegal immigration.

The shooting took place about six hours after a peaceful rally in front of the detention center, police spokesman Loretta Cool said.

Cool said all four officers fired their weapons, but she didn't have specific details of what took place. She said the officers weren't wearing body cameras, but the area is covered by surveillance cameras from the detention center.

Police said the man caused a vehicle to catch fire and that he attempted to ignite a large propane tank and set buildings on fire.

Police said that besides the rifle, he had a satchel and flares. Police said officers called out to the man, and shots were fired.

After the gunfire, officers took cover, contained the area and set up medical aid a short distance away, police said.

Officers then located the man and determined he had been shot and was dead at the scene.

Authorities say investigators are processing the scene and police are continuing to investigate. No law enforcement officers were injured.

The four Tacoma police officers who fired their weapons have been placed on paid administrative leave as is standard in officer-involved shootings.

The incident occurred just a day ahead of ICE's planned national raids in 10 cities, targeting hundreds of immigrants who were given deportation orders. Nearby Seattle, however, is not one of those cities on the list.

Activist group La Resistencia — ⁠ also known as NWDC Resistance, after Northwest Detention Center — has postponed its planned Saturday afternoon protest of the facility after reporting road closures and the facility's 24-hour lock down following the incident.

La Resistancia activist Maru Mora-Villalpando told the Seattle Times that they were notified about what occurred, but that the detainees inside the facility had no idea about the incident.

'They were not told that visits would not happen, were not told that the accident happened in the early morning. People in detention always are the last ones to know what's happening outside,' Mora-Villalpando told the newspaper.

She added that the organization handled three cases of medical neglect recently, including one that resulted in deportation and then death.

GEO Group, which runs the 1,575-bed Northwest Detention Center, in an email to The Associated Press said baseless accusations about how detainees are treated at its facilities 'have led to misplaced aggression and a dangerous environment for our employees, whose safety is our top priority. Violence of any kind against our employees and property will not be tolerated. We are thankful for the quick and brave action by the Tacoma Police Department, which prevented innocent lives from being endangered.'

GEO Group said the detention center in Tacoma has modern amenities with air conditioning, recreational activities, a bed for every individual and medical care available at all hours.

Last year, a federal judge ruled that Washington state could pursue its lawsuit seeking to force GEO Group to pay minimum wage for work done by detainees at the detention center.

In November, a Russian asylum-seeker who conducted a hunger strike to protest the conditions at the detention center died by suicide, the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office ruled.

Mergensana Amar, 40, was taken off life support after attempting to kill himself while in voluntary protective custody at the detention center on November 15, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.
A Nigerian man dies in a Japanese immigration detention center this week, an official says. It ends a hunger strike that an activist group said was intended to protest against him being held for more than three years.