Twelve asylum seekers recognized as refugees by the United Nations made an emotional plea Tuesday not to be deported.

Lawyers for the group submitted a letter to the justice minister and Immigration Bureau director, criticizing the January deportation of two similar ``U.N. mandate refugees'' and asking Japan to respect their refugee status.

The diverse group-three Kurds from Turkey, three Burmese, four Chinese and two Iranians-say that many people like themselves in this country fear detention and deportation, especially since two asylum seekers were expelled to Turkey on Jan. 18.

``Since the (January) deportation, I haven't been able to sleep properly,'' said one asylum seeker, a 36-year-old Kurd. He said he fears being taken into custody and sent to Turkey when he visits the immigration office to renew his provisional release permit.

Lawyers for the 12 said immigration authorities are growing more callous in their handling of refugees, likely because of a government crackdown on undocumented foreigners since 2003.

``I feel this is the result of a bigger movement to reduce the number of illegal foreigners,'' said Shogo Watanabe, a lawyer representing asylum seekers from Myanmar (Burma).

Watanabe pointed out that in the last year, several U.N. mandate refugees were detained in Japan, an act that was ``practically unheard of.''

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees recognizes as mandate refugees people who require international protection from threats to their lives, freedom and integrity in their home countries, and who have exhausted all means of seeking refugee status in the country they are in. The status is nonbinding.

Still, even countries that are not signatories to the 1951 U.N. Refugees Convention are expected to respect the designation and protect those so designated.

Japan, meanwhile, has said that it holds a ``different view'' from the UNHCR.

The UNHCR Tokyo regional office recognizes more than 27 cases as being mandate refugees in Japan, an official said.

While there are no figures on how often expulsion of mandate refugees has occurred, most developed nations have respected the U.N. recognition.

``The move to deport the two is unprecedented in Japan, is uncommon for a developed country and is certainly undesirable,'' a UNHCR official said.(IHT/Asahi: March 9,2005)