Filipinos ordered to leave Japan

Japan has ordered the parents of a 13-year-old Filipina to prepare to leave within two weeks, giving them a choice to leave their daughter behind or face deportation.

In a case closely followed by human rights activists, Noriko Calderon – who was born in Japan in 1995 – has publicly appealed to authorities to let her family stay together.

Her parents entered Japan in the early 1990s with illegal passports and stayed in the country undetected until two years ago when her mother was arrested but later released.

Noriko has grown up speaking only Japanese and attending local schools. Japan, which imposes tight controls on immigration, is likely to allow her to stay to complete her studies.

"I have decided not to grant a special residential permit to the entire family," Justice Minister Eisuke Mori, who oversees immigration, told reporters.

Yesterday was the deadline for the family’s temporary residential status. Shogo Watanabe, a leading human rights lawyer handling the case, said the immigration bureau told the parents to decide by February 27 on the date to fly to The Philippines.

"We accept neither the deportation of the whole family nor sending back only the parents," said Watanabe, who warned that the immigration authority could detain Noriko’s 36-year-old father if he refused to leave.

The parents have refused to leave without their daughter but ran out of legal options when the Supreme Court in September last year rejected their appeal to stay in Japan.

"She is 13 years old," father Arlan Cruz Calderon told reporters. "She cannot survive or protect herself alone."

Watanabe said he would keep negotiating with the immigration authority to let the family stay at least until the girl graduates from middle or high school.

An estimated 500 families were in the same situation as the Calderons, according to Watanabe, who has accused Japan of not respecting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.