APFS 100 Days of Action to Nurture Children's Dreams Report ⑤ Postcard Campaign in Front of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau (1st Time)

APFS is working on the "100 Days of Action to Nurture Children's Dreams" with the aim of obtaining special residence permission for 10 irregularly staying children who have already been issued deportation orders. Some families have been told that they will be allowed to stay in Japan if only the children promise to return to their home countries, so the situation is urgent.

To kick off the "100 Days of Action," we held a "Children's Conference" on August 29th to listen to what problems children are facing and how they are trying to solve them. The following issues were raised by the children:
- Not being able to work part-time and help parents financially
- Not being able to get health insurance (putting up with getting sick and not going to the hospital)
- I don't know what the future holds, so I can't do what I want to do.
- Will I be able to go on to higher education (will the school accept me)?

The children are trying to change the situation they find themselves in with their own hands. They express their determination, saying, "I want to break down the barrier of visas," and "I want to get a visa and become free."
As solutions to the problem, they list things like "talking to people around me about the situation and gaining their understanding," "letting the media know," and "holding a demonstration to publicly demonstrate how serious we are."
In response to the opinions of the children mentioned above, APFS held a "Request and Postcard Campaign to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau to Allow Undocumented Children to Stay in Japan" on Friday, October 23rd from 2:00pm to 3:30pm.

We made the following two requests to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau.
1. Please grant my children permission to stay as soon as possible so that they can realize their dreams for the future in Japan.
2. Please do not separate parents and children. Please grant special permission to stay to the parents so that the children can live in peace.

We have also submitted a petition written by the children along with the request. The request and petition will be reviewed by the Director of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau. They will also be delivered to the Minister of Justice.
We hope that you will consider our requests and petitions.

Meanwhile, in front of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau, children and others collected postcards asking for support. Although it was a short time, they managed to collect nearly 100 postcards.
We also saw messages like, "Since he was born in Japan, he should stay in Japan."

APFS will continue to carry out 100-day actions in the future.
We appreciate your support and cooperation.