Report on the venue of students from Ocha No Mizu Women’s University

16 students from Ocha No Mizu Women’s university and their professor, M. Keichi Kumagai visited APFS office on the morning of the 9^th of June.

The time was short but after Ms. G speech, there was a few questions. The students showed a good critical sense, and raised very pertinent problems.

Their venue was very fertile and we hope everybody enjoyed this rare occasion of discussing the problems related to the situation of the foreign residents in Japan.

After a brief presentation of APFS itself, the representative M. Kato explained through the help of statistics and distributions by nationality and type of visas of entry the global situation of the persons residing in Japan without a proper visa. Where does the immigration phenomenon from developing countries to Japan come from? What is the position of the State itself? What are, in a few words, the immigration policies in Japan? Those were some of the matters that M. Kato presented. Finally, he talked about the way that APFS had a leading role in the creation of the Special Permit of Residence.

Then, Ms. Garcia from the Philippines, coming as a guest speaker, took the time to explain concretely her present situation. She is currently left without a visa, and has lots of troubles. Her speech was very emotional, and probably everybody was moved by her story. If you lose your visa, there is the possibility of facing a forced deportation, which would mean that her 17 years old son would have to live by himself.

Everybody felt sympathy and compassion towards Ms. Garcia, and got a concrete glance at the kind of trouble that the foreign residents in Japan can face.

It is very important that many people feel concerned by the activities of our association.

We hope to be able to set up such occasions again.

About the informational meeting on the trial for state compensation for M. Suraj of the 21st of May

  During the Informational meeting that took place after the fourth hearing of the trial for compensation for Mr. Suraj, about information about the evolution of the case so far and the perspectives from now on, we looked at pictures of the reproduction of the situation of Mr. Suraj’s deportation (presented by the Ministry of Justice).
　
　M. Suraj was made to lay face down and was carried into the airplane, with metal handcuffs on the legs, and through the use of personal items that belonged to the Immigration officers, this is the kind of scene displayed in the pictures of the reproduction of the incident. After they made M. Suraj seat in the airplane seat, several Immigration officers were retaining M. Suraj (this is why the back of the chair fell), while his mouth was getting stuffed with a towel. Moreover, he was made to bend down forward when he was seated, which even in amateur’s eyes seems like an exaggerated pressure.

  Thinking that M. Suraj died in the middle of such an inhumane treatment, I felt a cruel indignation. The pictures shocked all the persons that participated to the informational meeting, and I think we all shared the same feeling. It was the occasion to dig into the real matter and to strengthen the determination towards making the truth become clear.