In 2023, Japan accepted 1,310 people seeking asylum – less than 10 per cent of the 13,823 applicants.
Under a different framework, as of the end of last year, Japan had accepted a total of 82 people as students from Syria who were recognised as refugees by the UN refugee agency, a foreign ministry official in charge of aid programmes said.
That scheme was aimed at educating future leaders of Syria as part of Japan’s long-term foreign aid policy, the official told AFP.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said 50 Palestinian patients, including 30 children with cancer, and their companions went through the reopened Rafah crossing to Egypt on Saturday as part of the ceasefire deal, which came into effect on Jan 19.
The director of Gaza hospitals said 6,000 patients were ready to be transferred from the Palestinian territory, and more than 12,000 were “in dire need of treatment”.
