family Reunification
Mr. A worked as a human rights journalist in a country in Africa. Because of his work, he was considered a threat by both the government of his country and the opposition. He received physical threats and after many ups and downs, he had to leave his wife and children behind and flee the country. He arrived in Japan on January 2007.
Since his three children were still very small and his youngest one was yet to be born, his plan was to flee to somewhere safe and return to the country as soon as public safety was restored.
Unfortunately, the situation in his country got worse and he had to stay and apply for asylum in Japan. His asylum request was approved in October 2008. Immediately following he began pursuing a way to bring his family to Japan.
Unfortunately, there was a lot of difficulty. Almost seven years later, in April 2015, his request was finally approved.
Based on the latest written statement submitted to the immigration office, we would like to introduce correspondence from the Japanese government which shows its lack of empathy with Mr. A’s suffering.
Mr. A waiting
for his family's arrival
The process of obtaining a certificate of eligibility for the family
At the beginning, Mr. A's application was processed with the support of RHQ (Refugee Assistance Headquarters) and JAR (Japan Association for Refugees). All the legal documents to prove family relation, such as birth certificates, marriage certificate, etc. needed to be collected.
Since his children were born during a state of chaos, they didn’t have any legal proof of their birth. So the local court made one for them.
Also for the marriage certificate, although they had a certificate for a traditional marriage in their country, they did not have a civil marriage certificate. Since the Japanese government only accepts a civil marriage certificates approved by the original government, he asked a lawyer to submit their marriage officially in their country.
This work had to be done without putting Mr. A in danger. A lot of time and money were spent to prepare and collect the documents for the motion.
Regarding the family members' passports, UNHCR assured him that the Red Cross would give them the travel certificate to replace the passport as soon as the certificate of eligibility was acquired.
After all of this work Mr. A was finally able to collect all the necessary documents and submitted the application for the certificate of eligibility at the beginning of February 2011. However, his request was denied.
He tried again in May and November 2012, and received the same result. At the time of each rejection, the immigration office stated the reason.
The reason giving by the immigration office was: Why did it take 3 years for him to try to bring his family over to Japan after he got refugee status? How did he manage to maintain his family relationship during this period (Was it a forged marriage)? The applicant doesn’t have any living plan or child support plan even if he was able to bring his family over to Japan. He doesn’t have enough income to support his family and as he also receives welfare, etc.
For his third request in November, he turned in statements to correspond to each of the inquiries. To satisfy the requests he provided his personal e-mails that he exchanged with his family, proof of income of 200,000JPY per month and a document to prove cancellation of welfare. Yet again he received a notice of denial for his request for a certificate of eligibility for his family:
Although they think highly of the fact that he has stopped receiving welfare, with his current income it will be difficult to support a family of six and could become dependent on welfare again. Thus the request could not be accepted.
Adding to the stress of daily life, he was filled with sorrow and worry that his family had to live in continued danger, was devastated and sad that he wouldn’t be able to see his family again or ever be able to live together.
He thought about bringing his family over with a tourist visa to see them temporarily. However after discussing this with his new lawyer, either because he regained his courage or because the situation in his country was getting worse, he decided to apply for the certificate of eligibility for his family a fourth time.
In the early summer of 2013, because he wanted to increase their income, with the cooperation of REN he submitted a document of confirmation of their intention for his wife to work in Japan. He also prepared a statement to express his devastating state of mind and then begged the government on humanitarian grounds.
Because his new lawyer truly believed that his family should be recognized as refugees, he spoke with UNHCR with the intention to go to court in case it became necessary.
He left everything up to the lawyer, but there still was no progress. He began to lose hope again. He switched jobs and moved to a new home. He lost the new job and went back to live on welfare. His suffering and struggle continued.
Until one day, he received the surprising news that the immigration department certified the issuance of the certification of the eligibility for his family.
Mr. A’s family arrived in Japan
The Family's Journey to Japan
The sudden approval he received to bring his family over to Japan brought him great happiness. However, it brought an unexpected problem. The approval would be canceled if his family was not able to arrive in Japan within three months. He had to solve the problems one by one; such as acquiring his family’s passports, securing their travel and flight cost, managing the risks which might occur when the family left the country, finding a house for the whole family and figuring out how they would live in Japan.
The law and order of the town his family lived in was getting worse and he couldn’t rely on his own government. He could only rely on the local lawyer, Red Cross and the Japanese embassy. Also it would cost about 1,500,000JPY for a family of five to travel to Japan.
Because it was very difficult for his family to leave their country, they also considered escaping to a neighboring country as there was a lot of conflicting information regarding law and order in the country. The lawyer also told the family that work had been completed and there wasn’t anything else the family could do during at the time except to wait. As a result, Mr. A was getting frustrated day by day.
Finally, things began to improve in the middle of March, just two weeks before the deadline. The Japanese embassy finally approved to issue visas for all of his family.
The guideline for bringing the family over was created by UNHCR, which Mr. A found by researching on-line, was very helpful. Also the groundwork he did with the lawyer, UNHCR, and IOM (International Organization for Migration) worked well.
On the day his family left their country, IOM staff guided them from their house to Narita through Istanbul. At Narita airport, IOM Japan staff guided them through the immigration procedure and their status of eligibility was finally issued.
At the Narita Airport on April 4th, it was very difficult to express how happy Mr. A was to see his family after seven years. Mr. A had dressed up in his best clothes and was holding a bouquet of flowers for his wife. He had been all excited since seven o’clock that morning waiting for them at Narita.
He couldn’t sleep the night before so his eyes were red. Seeing his wife who has been protecting his children for eight years, his three fully grown children and his last child who was unborn when he left the country was very emotional.
Regarding their temporary housing in Japan, ISSJ (International Social Service Japan) found the family a shelter ran by JELA (Japan Evangelical Lutheran Association) just two days before their arrival.
Mr. A and his family finally reunited again
Collaboration between support groups
In order for the family to start a new life in Japan, FRJ (Forum for Refugees Japan) provided arrangements, Support 21 and REN are providing Japanese language lessons and general administration support, CTIC is providing a place to study, ISSJ gives them life guidance. All the important matters were solved, such as arrangement for his children to go to school and finding a new house for his family. The family moved into a three bedroom apartment in Tokyo in August and his children enrolled in elementary and middle school.
“My wife and children love Japan. They have been learning Japanese really fast. Not only due to their effort, but to the thoughtful support of their Japanese teachers, from Support 21 and REN.”
There will be many problems ahead, however, they will get over these difficulties through their own efforts and that of these caring support organizations.
Why did the immigration office turn down his family’s status of eligibility? Why did they set the three month expiration period to bring his family over to Japan? (He considered the possibility to extend the expiration period.) There were many things which are difficult for us to understand, however, we realized just how amazing the way that these support organizations around the world worked together to help them after he received approval to have his family over to Japan. We really applaud their work.
