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UN experts urge Japan to protect rights of Fukushima clean-up workers

Xinhua | Updated: 2018-08-17 00:15
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GENEVA - A group of UN human rights experts on Thursday urged Japan to act quickly to protect tens of thousands of workers who are reportedly being exploited and exposed to toxic nuclear radiation in efforts to clean up the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

"We are deeply concerned about possible exploitation by deception regarding the risks of exposure to radiation, possible coercion into accepting hazardous working conditions because of economic hardships, and the adequacy of training and protective measures," the experts said in a joint media statement issued Thursday.

According to the experts, workers hired to decontaminate Fukushima reportedly include migrant workers, asylum seekers, and those who are homeless.

They said that contamination of the area and exposure to radiation remains a major hazard for workers trying to make the area safe seven years after the catastrophic nuclear meltdown which followed damage to the power plant from a strong earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

According to the experts, tens of thousands of workers have been recruited over the past seven years under the decontamination program.

A Japanese government figure showed that 46,386 workers were employed in 2016; and the Radiation Worker Central Registration Centre of Japan has indicated that as many as 76,951 decontamination workers were hired in the five-year period up to 2016.

"The people most at risk of exposure to toxic substances are those most vulnerable to exploitation: the poor, children and women, migrant workers, people with disabilities, and older workers," the UN experts stressed.

They are often exposed to a myriad of human rights abuses, forced to make the abhorrent choice between their health and income, and their plight is invisible to most consumers and policymakers with the power to change it, the experts explained.

The experts include Baskut Tuncak, UN Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes; Urmila Bhoola, UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, and Dainius Puras, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

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