පුදුම කරුමයක් නේ..
Filipino woman detained for two years due to translation error
Speaking on Dec. 16 in Matsusaka, Mie Prefecture, Rosemary Okui Arocha recalls when she was falsely detained by Mie prefectural police. As she was denied seeing her 11-, 16- and 21-year-old children at the time for more than a year, "Not a day passed without me crying," she says. (Jin Hirakawa)Rosemary Okui Arocha has firsthand experience of how a single mistranslation can irreparably change someone's life forever.
Her ordeal started on a chilly morning in mid-November 2021 in Matsusaka, Mie Prefecture.Okui, 45, made breakfast for her son, who was 11 at the time, and opened the door of her apartment to go to work.
She found herself surrounded by a group of about 10 police officers.
Okui, who came to Japan at age 17 to support her family and worked as a dancer and a factory worker, was showered with unfamiliar words and accusations such as "stimulant" and "transfer for profit."
She was arrested on suspicion of selling stimulant drugs to her acquaintance, although she had no idea of how she was tied to the allegations.
She was detained until just prior to her acquittal in March 2024.When Okui claimed her innocence in an interrogation room at the prosecutors' office, an interpreter sitting next to a prosecutor in front of her just seemed to have scoffed.
After the questioning session, the interpreter told her that the interrogation would be over sooner if she told the truth.
She felt as if the interpreter assumed she was guilty of the allegations.
https://www.ica.gov.sg/news-and-pub...tatements-in-permanent-residency-applications
