Japan Times
November 13, 2003
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| Maria Hope Jamili and her daughters, Demi (left) and Michelle, become emotional during a meeting with the family's supporters in Tokyo. |
Khin Maung Latt of Myanmar, his Filipino wife, Maria Hope Jamili, and their two daughters have no place to call home but Japan, and they are on shaky ground.
The couple met and married in Tokyo, speak to each other in Japanese, until recently had a steady income and witnessed the birth of their two girls here -- kids who speak only Japanese -- but like their parents are not legal residents.
Their decade together has been accompanied by the fear of sudden deportation, a fear that came true on Oct. 31 when the Tokyo Immigration Bureau took the 46-year-old Khin Maung Latt into custody after the Tokyo High Court turned down his request for refugee status two days earlier.
If Khin Maung Latt, who has been an activist supporting the democracy movement in Myanmar, is sent home, the chances are his wife and daughters, who hold Philippine citizenship, would never be able to see him again.
He immediately appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, so he will not be deported anytime soon. But the rest of the family, currently living in Ota Ward, Tokyo, will have to endure his absence and the prospect of permanent separation.
"No one can tell what would happen to my husband if he is sent back to Myanmar (because of his political activities), so I want to ask the immigration bureau not to endanger his life," Maria, 36, said in a recent interview with The Japan Times.
"Considering the political situation in his country and our daughters' education, Japan is the only place in the world where my family can lead a normal life."
Maria, whose two sisters are married to Japanese and legally reside in Japan, also worries that she and her daughters could be deported to the Philippines, where, she said, they would face huge financial and educational problems.
Khin Maung Latt arrived in Japan in 1988 to escape persecution by the military junta in Myanmar, according to the People's Forum on Burma, a Tokyo-based citizens' group supporting Myanmar's democracy movement and people seeking asylum in Japan.
He met Maria, who had entered Japan on a forged passport, in 1991. He began working at a newspaper delivery company in 1993. Their daughter, Demi, was born in 1994 and the couple submitted notification of their marriage to the Shinagawa Ward Office in Tokyo the following year. Michelle was born in 1997.
Because the Myanmar regime restricts marriages between its citizens and foreigners, the daughters, now age 9 and 6, were forced to hold Philippine citizenship, like their mother.
Khin Maung Latt and other Myanmarese in Japan have been engaged in political activities in support of the democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Apparently concluding things in his country were not going to improve anytime soon, he applied for refugee status in 1994, and met denial four years later.
Since his arrival, Khin Maung Latt has never paid the controversial monthly 10,000 yen obligatory levy to the Myanmar Embassy, and if he is sent home he would have a huge bill to pay, Maria said.
In August 1998, then Justice Minister Shozaburo Nakamura rejected Khin Maung Latt's application, and he was taken into custody for three months.
The family has been free on parole status and waging legal battles to either obtain refugee status for him or special resident status.
"I hope my dad can return by my mother's birthday (on Nov. 15). Having my dad home for the day will be much better than any birthday party," said daughter Demi, who attends an elementary school.
"Since the day he left, my daughters have not been able to sleep without holding my husband's pillow, which still carries his scent, though it is fading," Maria said.
As evidence that the family has become part of the local community, their neighbors, the president of the firm where Khin Maung Latt worked and his colleagues, and the daughters' teachers have signed a petition to Justice Minister Daizo Nozawa demanding his immediate release.
As of Monday, 20,480 people had signed the petition and many are also calling for Nozawa to reconsider his predecessor's decision to reject Khin Maung Latt's refugee application.
The petition urges the government not to take any action that could break up the family, and emphasizes that the children have a right to live with their parents.
The 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Japan ratified in 1994, requires member states to ensure children are not separated from parents against their will, unless such a separation serves the best interests of the child.
The government has apparently started to consider the rights of foreign children in formulating immigration policy.
In the past four years, at least 10 visaless families with school-age children were granted special permission by the justice minister to stay, according to the Tokyo-based citizens' group Asian People's Friendship Society.
Prior to these cases, special permission was never granted to any family that did not have Japanese relatives, unless there were mitigating circumstances such as the threat of persecution back home, and thus amnesty was rarely an option for visa violators.
The courts have also apparently started to show more leniency.
In September, the Tokyo District Court, in a landmark decision, suspended the deportation procedures for a visaless Iranian family, saying deportation could impose "unimaginable" burdens on the couple's 15-year-old daughter.
People's Forum on Burma officials say it is the first time a court has suspended the deportation of a visaless family citing the rights of the child.
In October, the same court suspended the deportation of a visaless South Korean family, ruling that remaining in Japan would serve the best interests of the child.
Lawyer Shogo Watanabe, director of People's Forum on Burma and Khin Maung Latt's counsel, said the Tokyo High Court's decision to reject his family's residency application and his detention represent a "backlash to these trends."
The Tokyo Immigration Bureau has declined comment on the case, except to say it has to protect the privacy of detained foreigners.
Experts say the attitude of immigration authorities toward Khin Maung Latt's family appears out of step with the government's relatively lenient refugee policy for Myanmarese democracy activists.
According to People's Forum on Burma, at least 51 such activists have been granted refugee status -- a relatively high number from a single country.
In addition, 81 Myanmarese activists and 10 of their family members have been granted special residency permission by the justice minister, officials of the group said.
Lawyer Watanabe said the group has not confirmed a single case in which a Myanmarese activist was deported home by Japan.
"From every perspective, Khin Maung Latt's family should be granted residency," Watanabe said. "The case seems to signal a shift by immigration authorities back to the dark ages."
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