UN Calls Japan To Protect Fukushima Clean-Up Workers Risking Exposure To Nuclear Radiation

UN Calls Japan to Protect Fukushima Clean-Up Workers Risking Exposure to Nuclear Radiation

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has called on the Japanese authorities to protect the more vulnerable workers currently decontaminating the damaged Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Station, including migrant workers and homeless people, because they were reportedly being exploited and misinformed about the potential risks of being exposed to harmful nuclear radiation.

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th August, 2018) The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has called on the Japanese authorities to protect the more vulnerable workers currently decontaminating the damaged Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Station, including migrant workers and homeless people, because they were reportedly being exploited and misinformed about the potential risks of being exposed to harmful nuclear radiation.

"Workers hired to decontaminate Fukushima reportedly include migrant workers, asylum seekers and people who are homeless. We are deeply concerned about possible exploitation by deception regarding the risks of exposure to radiation, possible coercion into accepting hazardous working conditions because of economic hardships, and the adequacy of training and protective measures. We are equally concerned about the impact that exposure to radiation may have on their physical and mental health," UN human rights experts said, as quoted in OHCHR press release.

According to the press release, exposure to radiation and contamination of the area present a great risk for workers even seven years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The OHCHR said, citing Japans Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, that 46,386 workers were employed in 2016 to clean the area.

"The people most at risk of exposure to toxic substances are those most vulnerable to exploitation: the poor, children and women, migrant workers, people with disabilities and older workers. They are often exposed to a myriad of human rights abuses, forced to make the abhorrent choice between their health and income, and their plight is invisible to most consumers and policymakers with the power to change it," the UN experts continued.

In March 2011, a 9.0-magnitude offshore earthquake triggered a 46-foot tsunami that hit Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, leading to the leakage of radioactive materials and shutdown of the plant. The accident is considered to be the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.