On Saturday
July 6th 2013, the Justice Ministry of Japan and the Immigration
Bureau deported 75 undocumented Filipinos through a chartered flight. As you
may know, Ghanaian citizen Abubakar Awudu Suraj, whom A.P.F.S. had supported to
take special permission of residence, died as he was being deported from Japan
on March 22nd 2010. Since Suraj’s death, the Justice Ministry of
Japan and the Immigration Bureau had suspended deportations. The Justice Ministry
of Japan and the Immigration Bureau enforced the deportation under such
circumstanceｓ,
and we feel strong resentment toward it.
Immigration
Department officials who had given prosecutors the files regarding Suraj’s case
were exempted last July, and the Justice Ministry of Japan officially stated
that their action to
Suraj was legal. However, the lawsuit against the Japanese government and the
Immigration Department officials is still continuing. In this case, the video
showing the officials’ brutal act was submitted, and we believe the whole truth
will be uncovered. This case questions the way the Immigration Bureau enforces
deportations. The forced deportation of the 75 undocumented Filipinos while the
case still ongoing is an extremely irresponsible action done by the immigration
Bureau, the Justice Ministry of Japan, and Japanese government, and that cannot
be accepted.
Yesterday, we
talked with Suraj’s widow about the forced deportation. She expressed her
strong frustration as she feels that the deportation completely ignored her
husband’s death. Suraj’s widow, a plaintiff in this case, has been distressed
from the trial, but she is taking Suraj’s case to court with her strong wish
that we should never let the same thing happen again. Resuming dangerous
deportations has utterly ignored both her husband’s death and her wish.
The examination of Immigration Department officials who sent Suraj to death will be held in Tokyo district court room 706 from 10:00am to 5:00pm on Friday, September 13th, 2013. Please do come join us if you consider that the forced deportation of the 75 undocumented Filipinos or resuming deportations at this point is a problem. We have to win this case to improve the condition of deportations. Our government should change it before creating another victim.
