Meeting Report

Hello Everybody! I'm Thomas, a new French volunteer at APFS, coming from Manila (Philippines).

I will stay in Tokyo for the next few months, and I'm looking forward to work closely with APFS staff  and all its members, for I believe they are doing altogether an amazing and very much needed job at helping immigrants who arrive and are living in Japan, and most of all, by bringing people together.

Last Sunday, March 31, a meeting was held to present the last news about Mr. Abubakar Awudu Suraj's case. Mr. Suraj was a Ghanian citizen and a long term resident in Japan, since he first arrived in Japan in 1988. He died during his deportation from Japan to Ghana on March 22, 2010, a procedure first engaged due to Mr. Suraj overstay on his visa. His family and friends, with the help of APFS, filed a complaint for excessive pressure exerced by the immigration officers in charge of Mr. Suraj's deportation that day.

Even though I don't speak Japanese well enough (especially when it comes to legal language) to understand all the ins and outs in about the case, Mr. Suraj's lawyer was able to review the case, give the informations about the last court hearing held on February 25, 2013, and present the arguments for future developments. After that, we've heard Mr. Suraj's wife tell her story with her husband. We've witnessed the sorrow caused by his death, but also the courage she shows by keeping on fighting to see one day the truth come out, and keep the memory of her husband alive.

Mr. Suraj's friends had also prepared a statement, full of dignity, and a concluding word by Mr. Katsuo Yoshinari, APFS Advisor, was a strong and determined call to intensify the mobilization for Mr. Suraj and his closed ones' sakes.

As a French citizen, such cases are unfortunately not unknown in France, especially those last years, with a strenghtening of the immigration policy, a strong increase of the number of deportations, and the multiplication of cases involving problems related to the deported rights and/or health. It is an unfortunate fact, but it is reassuring to see that people fight, either that is in France or here in Japan. Hoping for the best.

The APFS Project to Support the Disaster Area (vol. 4) has launched.

At APFS, we were engaged in Projects to Support the Disaster Area (vol. 1 – vol. 3) after the Great East Japan Earthquake from March to May 2011 by focusing on providing non-Japanese food. In the following, we did not do any disaster support activities for some time; however we have been thinking that we want to contribute again to the disaster area in some form.

We re-launched the APFS Project to Support the Disaster Area to show our wish in a concrete form that we would like to contribute to Japanese society (the disaster area) as foreign residents who have been living in Japan for a long time.

We will engage in support activities at the disaster area, in Rikuzen Takata City and Ofunato City in Iwate prefecture, from April 3^rd (Wed) 2013 with 6 members from 5 countries of Iran, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines. We are able to provide our support activities with the collaboration of Daikon-kon Project staff (in Hiraizumi-cho, Nishi-iwai-gun, Iwate Prefecture) who have been doing their activites in the disaster area from after the earthquake up until now.

We will report on our support activities at the disaster area on this blog.

APFS Project to Support the Disaster Area (vol. 4): Day 2 April 4th (Thu) - 2nd day of the project

Real activities started. We helped with cleaning windows of temporary housing (am) and petit relax time (foot bath at the common space, pm) at the Taki no Sato Temporary Housing Complex in Rikuzen Takata City, Iwate,

In the temporary housing complex, we cleaned the windows on 86 units. While working, foreign national APFS members talked with residents. Exchanges start with one good word. There was an elderly gentleman who took out his records (pictures, newspaper articles) from after the earthquake. This gentleman does not have anything to do until the evening when his family comes home, so he was very much looking forward to having these exchanges. Mirza, our member from Pakistan, listened to his stories. He was very happy with the exchanges, and promised to upload it to a blog.

Also, there were exchanges between local children and one of our Bangladeshi members, Joy. He was asked to come to the ‘Petit Relax Time’ in the afternoon. It seems that the children were fascinated by the fact the Joy spoke Japanese fluently. Since Joy communicated so enthusiastically, even some children who could not leave the house due to the shock after the earthquake came to the door. This way we could report on the circumstances of such children to local personnel.

In the afternoon, we taught craftwork to children and provided foot bath to adults while having tea together (ochakko as they call it Iwate).

6 APFS members were responsible for the foot bath. All 6 of them have been living in Japan for long years, so they had a good grasp of it. They carefully massaged the feet of elderly people, for which recipients were very grateful. An Iranian member, Majid played soccer and volleyball with the children. Majid plays volleyball with his own children on a regular basis, so his shots were really something. Since there is no playground in Rikuzen Takata, the have to use the narrow streets in the temporary housing complex, so we felt that they must a lot of frustration.

Through this project, we could see that current problems are different from those right after the earthquake. After the disaster, survivors were preoccupied with everyday food and living. However, there were some people after 2 years who said the ‘sadness and suffering have built up, so we were finally able to cry’. During the morning window cleaning in the temporary housing units, we could see from decoration that many people had lost their family members.

In our stay, this was a day when we had to think about what we can do.

* Extra

To spare accommodation costs, we are preparing our own food in this project. The kitchen is full of the smell of curry.

Today’s menu was Sri Lankan food (spicy coconut beef stew) and Pakistani food (keema curry). There are fierce discussions in the kitchen around who prepares what.

We shared our table with Daikon-kon Project staff, and they seemed to enjoy the unknown flavors.

Report Meeting on Mr. Suraj’s Case

We held a report meeting about Mr. Suraj’s case on March 31^st 2013 at the Living & Industry Plaza in Ikebukuro.

We invited Counselor Kentaro Iida from the attorney team, who spoke about the legal developments in the case, especially the suit for state compensation in a clear and easy to understand manner.

The late Mr. Suraj’s wife and friends told us about their memories with him. The widow said that she felt the three years that have passed since the incident were in a sense short and at the same time long and painful.

There were around 50 participants. It was an opportunity to reconfirm our will with them to broaden the circle of support, so that we can let many more people know about the incident.

At APFS, we continue our activities to unravel the truth. Please let us have your support!