Pakistani man on hunger strike after being served pork in Japan

A Pakistani man being detained at a Yokohama immigration centre has gone on a hunger strike after being served pork.

The 48-year-old, who is being detained for unidentified reasons, was served a hot meal that contained processed ham on the evening of August 3. The man has now been on hunger strike for two weeks.

Muslim man on hunger strike after immigration officers served him pork in Japan

The man is currently only consuming water and nutritional supplements but immigration officials say the man’s health is not in any danger.

Last year, another Muslim man detained at the immigration control office in Yokohama, Japan had launched a hunger strike after he was mistakenly served pork. However, on that occasion the Yokohama area immigration apologized for the “administrative mistake”.

A group protecting the human rights of foreigners visited the immigration department this week to request that actions are taken to prevent such incident from occurring again.



A representative of the group said, “The immigration office has the responsibility to provide meals with religious customs in mind, and we request that this doesn’t happen again.” The immigration department rejoined by saying, “We regret that this has happened and we are swiftly investigating the cause”.

This article originally appeared on JAPAN TODAY