Thursday, 28 Mar 2024

Homeless men denied entry to Tokyo evacuation facility during Typhoon Hagibis

A pair of vagrants seeking shelter from Japan’s killer typhoon were denied entry to a Tokyo evacuation facility — because they did not have permanent addresses in the region, according to a new report.

The two men were barred from entering the facility in Tokyo’s Taito Ward as Typhoon Hagibis rolled in Saturday because the refuge was meant for ward residents, local officials told The Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

The first homeless man, 64, showed up at a local elementary school — which had been set up as an emergency shelter — around 9 a.m. as the typhoon approached the capital, according to the report.

When the man was asked his address, he replied that he didn’t have one, the outlet reported. He was promptly turned away.

“I told them that I have an address in Hokkaido, but they still denied me entry and said, ‘This is an evacuation center for Tokyo residents,’” the man told the paper.

He had no choice but to spend the night under a plastic umbrella beneath a building’s overhang, he said.

“I wanted them to allow me into the facility because the wind was strong and it was raining,” the man told the paper.

Another homeless man visited the facility that afternoon and was turned away for the same reason, according to the report.

After hearing what had happened, Atsuko Imagawa, who runs an organization that provides support for the homeless, immediately pushed the ward government to prepare evacuation centers for those on the streets.

But a ward official in charge of crisis management told Imagawa those accommodations were not possible, the paper reported.

“There is no telling when someone might become homeless, so I became very despondent when I realized they would take discriminatory measures even when people’s lives were at stake,” Imagawa said.

On Tuesday, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to take action to prevent future such cases.

“Shelters are supposed to be set up for the purpose of protecting lives of affected people,” Abe told Agence France-Presse. “It is desirable to accept all affected people in shelters.”

Hagibis packed strong winds and heavy rain, triggering landslides and causing dozens of rivers to overflow.

By Tuesday afternoon local time, the death toll had reached nearly 70, with about a dozen people missing.

A homeless man who lived in another area of the capital was among the dead. His body was discovered Tuesday near a flooded river. Authorities believe he camped out nearby and drowned in the flooding.

Some 1,100 homeless people sleep on the streets in Tokyo, according to the government, making up a quarter of the nation’s homeless.

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