Mass eviction of homeless people ahead of Expo 2025 Osaka
Five hundred agents, some in riot gear, fenced off the Airin General Centre, ordering homeless people to move. The 1970 Expo was a “symbol of Japan’s rapid economic growth”. Osaka is home to the highest number of day labourers in the country. The centre closed in 2019. For a 60-year-old homeless man, “There are more and more foreign tourists here. So I guess it’s just a sign of the times.”
Rome (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Some 500 government officials and law enforcement agents in riot gear on Sunday descended upon the Kamagasaki District in Osaka’s Nishinari Ward to evict homeless people living near the Airin General Centre.
Osaka is home to the highest number of day labourers in Japan, many of them living near the Airin centre, along with the very poor and the homeless, where they could find jobs and support. But in 2019, the centre was closed and since then many people have been living in adjacent streets.
The Osaka prefectural government, which owns the land, filed a lawsuit demanding that homeless people leave the area. Last May, the homeless community and their representatives lost the case and the sentence was upheld. The Osaka District Court has since approved the government's motion to start the eviction process.
The timing suggests the authorities intend empty the area ahead of the Expo 2025 Osaka, from April to October next year.
For Expo organisers, the aim of the international exhibition is to bring “together people and innovations from around the world in an effort to address issues facing humankind on a global scale.”
Osaka already hosted expos twice, in 1970 and 2005, with the former becoming a “symbol of Japan’s rapid economic growth,” as the organisers point out.
Sunday’s eviction began before 7 am when police blocked a road in front of the closed centre, where more than 10 people usually spend the night.
The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reports that officers loudly told the homeless people to move, telling them that they were carrying out a court order.
The Airin area was littered with refuse, including abandoned appliances, used by the homeless. Cranes and waste collection trucks removed the bulky objects, while government workers handled the smaller stuff.
Afterwards, the centre was fenced off with barriers more than three metres high to prevent people from coming back.
Administrative staff approached the homeless people, to guide them to a different facility where they could receive counselling and support. But many of them refused to leave.
Members of homeless support groups rushed to the site and protested, demanding the road be reopened.
Asahi Shimbun spoke to a distressed man in his 70s, who said: “Give me a week’s notice, and I can organise my belongings nicely, but this is too violent. How can they ask me to leave so abruptly?”
Another 60-year-old homeless person said he had expected the eviction. “There are more and more foreign tourists here. So I guess it’s just a sign of the times.”
This is not the first time that day workers and law enforcement have clashed. Between 1961 and 2008, 24 riots occurred in Kamagasaki, resulting in numerous injuries and arrests.
The causes of the clashes are varied. Some homeless people vented their outrage against the government and the police. In other cases, workers complained about poor working conditions or employers' arrogance.
The Airin General Centre was built in 1970 to oversee the open labour market and recruit workers on the streets in response to the "first Nishinari riots" in 1961.
The centre had a space called "yoseba," where day labourers gathered for job assignments and a hospital facility that provided free, low-cost medical care.
The centre became a "symbol of Kamagasaki" because it was a place where workers interacted. However, the centre had problems with earthquake resistance.
In 2016, the decision was made to temporarily relocate the centre's job facility and create a new building on the site. In 2019 it was shut down.
Since then, the demolition work has not yet begun, while the homeless still sleep in front of the shuttered facilities, using blue plastic sheets and futons.
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21/12/2023 14:56
