KENPEI METHODS OF HANDLING ILLEGAL FILIPINOS IN JAPAN

Migrante Europe

Tanggol MIGRANTE Statement on the “Forced Deportation” of 75 Undocumented Filipino Migrants

(To read statement, click Migrante Europe above, then click subsequent links that appears)

KEMPEITAI LIVES ON!!!

         The methods used by the immigration officials in deportation of the 75 Filipinos from Japan is a reminiscent of the atrocious methods of the Japanese Kempeitai in the Philipines during WWII.


         I was a small child of five then. I remember when the kenpei (Jap military police) would come in the dead of the night to roundup the people in the village in search of guerillas. Choosing individuals ramdomly (or sometimes aided by Makapili) and leading them to only God knows where, never to be seen again.



Kenpei roundup of villagers in the Philippines ca.1944

         It came into my mind when I read the part saying "without consent or warning, all 75 deportees - 53 adult males, 13 females and 8 minor children from different immigration detention facilities - were roused from their sleep in the early morning of July 6 and then forcibly brought to Narita International Airport to board a waiting Japan Airlines flight paid for by the Japanese government that will bring them back to the Philippines with 60 Japanese immigration personnel as security escorts." The similarity is quite disconcerting.

         There is a tint of violations of the rights of the deportees here and a thorough investigations must be done. And the complicity by of the Philippine representatives in Japan must by must also be looked into nothing, they should have protected the rights of the Filipinos.

         Time and again, the deplorable attitude of the Philippine embassies around the globe manifest itself when it comes to the protection of Filipino citizens, as exemplified by the incidents in Middle East, and the Asiatic Pacific rim countries. Instances of Embassy official even helping the local authorities in violating the rights of Filipinos were noticed.

         Of what good are the Philippine Embassies? Are they posted abroad costin g the Filipinos a sizable amount of money to look after what?

         The DFA has many questions to answer from the Filipinos abrioad ant to the taxpayers at home!

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