Burma Information Network- Japan (www.burmainfo.org)

Rengo backs detained Myanmar activist

The nation's largest labor organization urged the government Monday to release a 46-year-old man from Myanmar facing deportation, submitting a joint petition by 20 labor unions under its umbrella.

In the petition submitted to Justice Minister Daizo Nozawa, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) demanded that Khin Maung Latt, a Myanmarese democracy activist who does not have a visa, and his family be granted special residency permits in Japan.

Khin Maung Latt, who has a 36-year-old Filipino wife and two daughters, is in detention at the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau, following a rejection of his application for refugee status by the Tokyo High Court in late October.

He arrived in Japan in 1988 and his wife in 1991. The couple have since lived in Tokyo without legitimate visas, but the daughters, aged 6 and 9, go to school here and speak only Japanese.

The ministry has began deportation procedures against him. His supporters say he may never be able to see his family again, because he could be imprisoned after returning home.

Rengo said Japan is the only country where the family can live happily together.

During a Diet session in November, Nozawa said the ministry would not take any step that would forcibly split up the family, but it would go ahead with the deportation procedure for the entire household. Such a position has apparently left the ministry with only one option - deporting the family as a whole to the Philippines.

Officials at the immigration bureau have been pressing Khin Maung Latt to agree to leave Japan for the Philippines, according to his supporters.

In response to Monday's petition, Masayoshi Kijima, chief of the screening division in the ministry's Immigration Bureau, said the ministry has no choice but to proceed with deportation for Khin Maung Latt.

"There are a number of cases like this one and we cannot give special treatment to this family only, even from the perspective of human rights," Kijima was quoted of saying.