Repatriation Case of Children

Keiko Terasaki, Social Worker
Aya Nakamura, Social Worker

In ISSJ, we offer social work service to the repatriation case of children with foreign nationality. We would like to explain the situations which caused such repatriation, and introduce the service ISSJ have been offering by presenting a few individual cases:

When a woman of foreign nationality without visa bears a child in Japan , her child cannot obtain visa and gets the same status of overstay as its mother. In such case, unless having a special reason, it might be very difficult to obtain visa to stay in Japan. Among the children (step children) brought by their mothers to Japan as a result of their marriage to Japanese men, some become overstay because their mothers lost their visas due to divorce. In this case both mother and children will be the subject to be repatriated.

In many cases, mothers (or fathers) do not make birth registration either to Japanese government or to the Philippine Embassy in Japan for fear of disclosure of their overstay. In such case, ISSJ advise them to register their child birth first and give necessary support for registration. If the natural mother is not located(missing), ISSJ firstly makes every effort to locate the mother. We make all the necessary procedure for the birth registration in cooperation with the Philippine Embassy,.However, there are some difficult points such as to prove the fact that the mother is unknown and to obtain documents which certify the mother's nationality.

advertised the missing mothers in the newspapers & magazines for Filipinos in Japan

Children to be repatriated with ISSJ assistance are mostly of Philippine nationality. According to the Philippine regulations, when the children are to be repatriated from Japan to their country escorted by persons without parental authority, "Authority to Escort" is required from the Department of Social Welfare and Development =DSWD. We need to make social assessment for the child and child’s caretaker, and to send our report to DSWD in order to secure "Authority to Escort". DSWD investigates the undertaking family for children to ensure the child’s welfare, and issues the Affidavit of Undertaking. Only when the welfare of the child is ensured through all these procedures, the child is able to return to Philippines. If the natural parents are not legally married, parental authority is to be given to the natural mother according to the Philippine regulations, and thus even the natural father is required to obtain "Authority to Escort".

In the event of assistance of repatriation, ISSJ put great emphasis on the child’s welfare. Our first priority is that the child can live together with their natural parents, or when this is not possible, we look for the possibility to live with their grandparents or uncle/aunt. We also ask DSWD to follow-up and make adjustment study of the case after the child is being repatriated. The period of this follow-up varies from several months to over one year depending on the case condition (age of the child, adjustment status, family situation). There are all kinds of repatriation with different background. The following are few of the case examples undertaken by ISSJ:

 

 

Case 1

A Japanese man and his Filipina wife consulted ISSJ about a 2-year old child of Philippine nationality. They were entrusted with the child by the wife's Filipina friend a year ago. 3 months after they were entrusted with the child, they became unable to contact its natural mother. They have waited for her to contact them, but her whereabouts were unknown. The natural father of the child was Japanese but ran away knowing of the pregnancy. His name and location were unknown. The child's natural parents were not legally married and the child had no visa, but the birth registration of the child was completed at the Philippine Embassy. The couple had a copy of the certificate of foreign registration of the natural parents, so ISSJ requested DSWD to locate their family in Philippines based on the address written on the certificate. The parents of the natural parents and the family of their brother were located. The family did not know the whereabouts of the natural mother and were worriying about the child. So they decided to look after the child, and the Filipino woman who was firstly entrusted with the child was to escort the child to Philippines. After all the necessary documents were prepared, the child left Japan with her and was received by the Filipino family. The child is, according to the adjustment report from DSWD, loved and cared for by its grandparents and uncle/aunt, and is spending a happy life with its cousins.

 

Case 2

A Filipino man requested for a support. Both he and his child (6 years old) are overstay, and want to return to Philippines together. He is not married with the natural mother of the child. She is already married to a Japanese man and has no intention to look after the child, so he said he has actually been looking after the child. ISSJ had an interview with the natural mother to confirm that she has no intention to take care of the child. Thus ISSJ prepared the documents stating that "the natural mother entrusted the care of the child to its natural father", and made birth registration to the registration office with the natural mother’s cooperation, and at the same time, paternal acknowledgement was also registered. ISSJ requested DSWD for investigation for paternal family as the father and the child wanted to return to the father’s home in Philippines. After the necessary document was completed, they returned to Philippines together. In consideration of the school age of the child, ISSJ also requested DSWD for a necessary support for entering school and adjustment in the school. According to the two reports from DSWD, the child entered the nearby school, made friends and its adjustment is very satisfactory.

 

Case 3

ISSJ assisted a Filipina mother and child for their return to Philippines. The mother was already confined in the immigration office and the child was temporarily under the care of child guidance center. Since birth registration of the child had not been made yet, the immigration office requested the support of ISSJ in this matter. First we made the investigation of the child and then went to the immigration office for an interview with the mother and asked her to fill out the sheet of birth registration. We have found that the natural father of the child is from South America and had already returned to his country. The birth certificate of the mother was not available, so we asked DSWD to secure the certificate to be sent to us from the family in Philippines. Since all the necessary documents were prepared, the mother and the child returned to their country and are now living in the mother's parents home.