‘Vietnamese killed himself’:

A Vietnamese man held in a solitary cell at an immigration detention centre in Japan committed suicide, a Vietnamese community leader said, raising fresh questions over conditions in the country’s detention facilities.

Nguyen The Hung killed himself on Saturday at the East Japan Immigration Center in Ibaraki prefecture, northeast of the capital, Tokyo, said Tam Tri Thich, a Buddhist nun who said she received the information from the Vietnamese embassy in Tokyo.

The Vietnamese embassy could not immediately be reached for comment. Reuters was not able to independently verify the man’s identity.

Nguyen, born in 1969, arrived in Japan in 1998 to seek asylum, Tam Tri told Reuters on Monday. He was one of more than 11,000 refugees Japan took in during the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

Tam Tri, who heads a Vietnamese Buddhist group in Japan, said the embassy had asked her to arrange funeral services for Nguyen, which she aims to fund through donations raised from other members of the community.

The death of Nguyen, who also went by the name Van Huan Nguyen, takes to 13 the toll since 2006 in Japan’s immigration detention system, a figure that has sparked criticism from activists that authorities have not done enough to improve conditions at the centres.

Mental health problems are rife, with many detainees held for periods ranging from months to years and falling into depression.

Suicide accounted for four of the cases before Nguyen’s death, Justice Ministry data show. (RTRS)