“I would rather die than go back to Turkey,” says Ali*. “But life is also getting worse here. I can see that our Japanese neighbours are much cooler towards us these days. Some refuse even to greet us.”
More than a decade after he arrived in Japan with his wife and their two eldest children, Ali is fighting a battle on two fronts – a decision on his application for refugee status, and rising hostility towards his family and other members of the country’s Kurdish community.
