A Peruvian mother and her two teenage children filed a lawsuit on Tuesday seeking special permission to stay in Japan, claiming that deportation would harm the children, who were born and raised in Japan.
Nelly Moreno, 51, her 15-year-old daughter and her 14-year-old son filed the suit with the Osaka District Court following a deportation order issued by the Osaka Regional Immigration Bureau.
"We do not have any home in Peru and it would be difficult to attend school. I should stay in Japan. I want to live with my family in peace through winning the suit," the daughter said at a news conference.
According to the suit, Moreno entered Japan in 1994 — her 60-year-old Peruvian husband came in 1991 — using fake passports bearing other people's names. Although their children were born in Japan, all family members were given a deportation order after the father was arrested in 2011 for illegally staying in the country.
They lodged an administrative lawsuit seeking to overturn the order, but the father was sent back to Peru in September last year after the Supreme Court ruled against them in 2015.
In July, immigration officials told the mother and her children that they would be deported during the school summer break.
They are seeking residence permits on humanitarian grounds, which can be granted at the discretion of the justice minister. They say deportation "would cause irreparable damage to the healthy growth of the children," who hardly speak Spanish.
