JT-Illegal workers make plea in ris

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Subject: JT-Illegal workers make plea in risky immigration visit

Japan Times - Sep 1, 1999.
Illegal workers make plea in risky immigration visit
A group of Asians who have overstayed their visas visited the Tokyo Regional
Immigration Office on Wednesday to ask the Justice Minister to give them
special permission to live in Japan.

This is the first time that people who have overstayed and have no Japanese
relatives have made an amnesty appeal as a group, according to the Asian
People's Friendship Society, a citizens' group supporting their action.

However, the immigration office said it will deal with their cases
individually.

Twenty-one people from Bangladesh, Iran and Myanmar -- workers and their
relatives -- visited the Immigration Office to ask for amnesty. They
consisted of two single men and five families, among whom eight are minors.

According to Katsuo Yoshinari, president of the APFS, most of them came to
Japan in the early 1990s to work. They eventually sent for their families or
married non-Japanese here.

Their children, either born or raised in Japan, are attending regular
Japanese schools and are used to life here, but as long as they have
overstayed, the opportunity for higher education or secure work is limited,
he said.

"I really want permission to live here, because I won't be able to adjust to
the custom and culture of my native country," said a 16-year-old Iranian,
who attends a public high school.

"Because of today's action, these people may be sent back to their native
country," Yoshinari told the press before visiting the immigration office.
"But they decided to take the risk because they believe the current
conditions for similar people who have overstayed needs to be changed."

The leading counselor for the group, Satoshi Murata, also urged the
government to consider amnesty.

"Although they have overstayed their visas," he said, "these people have
contributed to Japan's economy by taking on severe and dangerous physical
labor but still have no welfare or guarantee against injuries."