According to the Tokyo Shimbun 2024/11/02 “A 20-year-old foreign national who grew up in Japan was deported on the 8th, she lost her residence status due to depression and was detained, complaining of a lack of humane consideration in the immigration response.”, a 20-year-old who grew up in Japan and is being detained by the Tokyo Immigration Bureau. A Brazilian woman will be deported on the 8th. She has no money, no relatives in her home country, and despite the fact that she can receive support services provided by international organizations after returning home. She will be sent back to Brazil with “no support.” Supporters and experts have criticized the immigration authorities’ response as “lacking humanitarian consideration.”.

Article summary

The summary of this article is as follows.

The Tokyo Immigration Bureau (Tokyo Immigration Bureau) plans to forcibly deport a 20-year-old Brazilian woman who grew up in Japan, and supporters and experts have criticized the Immigration Bureau’s response as “lacking humanitarian consideration.” . The woman came to Japan in 2016 as an adopted child of a Japanese-American couple and was staying on a student visa, but while attending vocational school she developed depression and was unable to attend school, causing her to lose her residence status. She had been detained since August and was ordered deported, but she agreed to return home.

Despite being able to receive support from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which provides support for living after returning home, she refused the support after receiving a false explanation that “if you receive support, you will not be able to re-enter the country.” It is said that The IOM side has explained that there will be no disadvantage to re-entry, but supporters have taken issue with the false explanations and cold-hearted response of the Immigration Bureau. They are questioning the immigration authorities’ response that does not take into account people’s daily lives.

My impressions

As for the circumstances that led to her detention, “The woman grew up as an orphan in a facility in Brazil, but was adopted by a Japanese-American couple and came to Japan with her family in 2016 when she was 12 years old. The woman’s residence status was ‘Student’. Although she graduated from high school, she became estranged from the couple and developed depression while attending vocational school. Because she did not attend school enough, she lost her residence status and has been detained since August”.

It is heartbreaking that women are subject to deportation for reasons that cannot be solely attributed to her.

In the first place, it should have been possible to apply for special permission to stay at the moment she became the subject of deportation procedures, and there was a possibility that special permission would be granted based on humanitarian considerations, but it is not mentioned in the article whether she has tried this path or not.

Japan Immigration News