People fleeing Japan’s crippled nuclear plant are being turned away from evacuation centers because of unfounded fears they might contaminate others with radiation.
Those made homeless by the emergency at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi atomic plant need certificates proving they are not contaminated before they are allowed inside the centers.
Screening facilities set up to soothe concerns over radiation have become checkpoints that determine access to a place to sleep and healthcare, even though experts say evacuees pose no risk to others.
“Unless they are plant workers, ordinary people aren’t dangerous,” said Kosuke Yamagishi of Fukushima prefecture’s medical services division. “People are simply over-reacting, and sadly this could lead to discrimination.”
An eight-year-old girl from Minamisoma was refused treatment for a skin condition in a hospital in Fukushima city because she did not have a screening certificate, the Mainichi daily reported.
An official at a center in Fukushima city, said evacuees from within 30km of the plant “are requested to provide certificates. If they don’t have them, they will need to be screened at the site.”
“It’s so that the rest of the evacuees can feel safe. It’s a matter of peace of mind,” added the man, who did not wish to be named.
The episode has echoes of the discrimination suffered by hibakusha — survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — who were shunned for fear they might make others ill.
The certificates are being issued by the Fukushima prefectural government, which says they seem to be the only way it can ease fears.
“Although evacuees normally shouldn’t have to prove they have been screened in order to enter an evacuation center, the situation is that there are some shelters that require them,” Yamagishi said.
An official from Minamisoma city said even the youngest and most vulnerable are affected.
“Children have been rejected from evacuation centers. It’s really sad for them to be told, ‘Don’t come near, don’t come near,’” said Sadayasu Abe, a secretary for the mayor of Minamisoma.
Kenji Sasahara, who heads a screening center in Minamisoma, said many evacuees are angry at having to provide the certificates, especially as no member of the public he had screened had shown an elevated level of radiation.
“Of more than 17,000 people who were screened there no one was at risk, except for three plant workers,” he said.
“This is a complete over-reaction. People are quite irate. Minamisoma now has this image that it is a ‘contaminated city’,” he said by telephone.
Distrust of people from the area is spreading further afield.
One Fukushima prefecture woman who decided to evacuate her family to an area north of Tokyo wrote on her blog that a hotel in Saitama prefecture had refused to accept them as guests.
“When I explained that I was from an area that was not even in the voluntary evacuation zone ... the clerk responded: ‘You can’t stay here unless you have been tested and can prove you’re not a hibakusha.”
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