Article summary
The article by Bengo4.com on 2024/11/23 is summarized below.
Maribeth (49), a Filipino woman living in Gunma Prefecture, does not have a residence status because she was allowed to enter the country with a fake passport and is separated from her daughter. In 2005, she came to Japan at the recommendation of her sister, but after entering the country, she learned that she had a fake passport. While struggling to make ends meet, she met a regular customer, Mr. A, while working at a Philippine pub, and in 2009 she gave birth to a daughter. The daughter was born with an intellectual disability and obtained Japanese citizenship, but Mr. A placed her in a foster care facility without her permission.
In 2017, she was detained at the immigration bureau for processing, and for the next three years and 10 months, she suffered from stress and unexplained abdominal pain during the detention. She was violently suppressed during her protests and was kept in a punishment cell, resulting in severe physical and mental injuries. Mr. A, who was his only support, also passed away, and she was provisionally released in despair, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, she was unable to reunite with her daughter.
Currently, she is allowed to visit once a month, but there are many restrictions and her contact with her daughter is extremely limited. Her daughter, who has an intellectual disability, has difficulty learning languages other than Japanese, and living in Japan is essential, but her mother, Maribeth, has not been granted a residence status. She has filed a national compensation suit seeking compensation for the excessive restraint he suffered from immigration authorities, but the immigration authorities have only submitted some video evidence, and the trial continues.
We hope that the mother and child can live peacefully in Japan, but the road ahead remains difficult.
Thoughts after reading the article
This situation is really sad. Aside from the fact that it was a state compensation lawsuit, the article does not mention whether or not an attempt was made to obtain special permission to stay. If the daughter’s father could not be expected to raise her, an option may be to apply for special permission to stay in order to raise the child of a Japanese citizen with a disability. (The application process for special permission to stay, which is granted as a result of an objection to the Minister of Justice during deportation proceedings and cannot be triggered by foreign nationals’ action, began in June of this year.) )
Cases of “Special permission to stay” from the Immigration Services Agency
However, illegal entry using a fake passport is considered the most serious offense under the Immigration Control Act, so the hurdles are extremely big. Timely, the Immigration Services Agency has published “Cases in which special permission to stay was granted and cases in which special permission to stay was not granted” on November 22, 2024.