Filipino couple in Japan to face detention unless they return to RP

MANILA, Philippines - After being given four extensions, a Filipino couple has been told by the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau to leave Japan by March 9, with or without their 13-year-old daughter, otherwise they would be detained. According to the Japan Times, the bureau also told the coupled that their provisional stay, which has been extended for four times since November 2008, will no longer be extended. “I’m disappointed," said 36-year-old Arlan Calderon, adding that he still doesn’t know how to tell his daughter the news. Justice Minister Eisuke Mori has previously decided to allow the couple’s daughter, Noriko, who was raised in Japan and speaks only Japanese, to stay there on “humanitarian grounds." Noriko was born in 1995 in Japan after her parents entered the country in the early 1990s using different people’s passports. She currently attends a junior high school in Warabi, Saitama Prefecture. The Immigration Bureau reportedly tends to grant special permission to undocumented families whose children are already in junior high school because it is considered “inhumane" to deport a child who can only speak Japanese and has spent more than six years in the Japan’s education system. Since 2006, the Filipino family has been asking the Japanese government to let them stay in Japan together, but the Supreme Court turned down their plea last September. Since then, the immigration bureau has extended their stay four times to prepare for departure. “It’s wrong that (the Immigration Bureau) gave them such a short period to make the decision," said human rights lawyer Shogo Watanabe, who is handling the Calderon case, in the report. Moreover, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has already reportedly sent the Japanese government an inquiry about the Calderon case. “If they think their decision is right, they should wait until the international organization makes a judgment on it," he said. The report said that supporters of the Filipino family have given the Justice Ministry and the Immigration Bureau a petition with 19,733 signatures requesting that the Calderons be allowed to stay in Japan. According to the Immigration Bureau, there are about 113,072 illegal foreign residents staying in Japan as of January. In 2007, some 7,388 foreigners received special permission to stay in Japan while 39,382 were deported in 2008. - Kimberly Jane T. Tan, GMANews.TV