Originally Uploaded by SYI (Shuyosha Yujin-yushi Ichido: Immigration Detainees’ Friends)
https://pinkydra.exblog.jp/29076784/
Video Message 1: Claudio Peña
Messages from Refugees/Undocumented Immigrants in Japan, for World Refugee Day 2020
Language: Japanese and English
Subtitle: English
Edited by SYI
(May 2020)
Claudio Peña is a cook working in Japan for many years.
He lost visa in 2011, and was detained by the immigration twice.
The second detention reached 2 years and a half in April 2020.
Claudio Peña had worked as a cook since entering Japan in Jan. 1996.
In the end of 2010, he left his previous workplace to work at a new restaurant to be established by his Japanese friend.
However, the 2011 great earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster made the Japanese friend decide to give up his plan and leave Japan.
Claudio Peña looked for a workplace, but he couldn’t find any.
Immigration Bureau did not extend his period of residence.
Peña was thus made undocumented and detained by the immigration.
Claudio Peña was over fifty then. He cannot return to Chile.
He has neither expectation to establish life again in Chile, nor family to support him after his return.
Moreover, Claudio Peña is a refugee.
During the 1973 Chilean coup, Claudio’s father was forced to help with the army’s persecution of activists and massacre.
After the democratization in 1990, the father reported what he had done to the Truth Commission.
However, this provoked hostility both from the right and the left.
The whole family became the target of right-wing persecution.
As the result, Peña’s family was forced to live separately.
Despite that, one night in 1992 in Santiago, Claudio Peña was abducted by unidentified attackers.
He was taken outside the city, beaten up, and seriously injured.
In the hospital, he had to keep the reason secret from the doctor
in order to avoid further persecution.
Claudio Peña had to leave Chile.
He initially flied to Europe, where he met a Japanese
who asked him to work his restaurant in Japan.
It is so cruel and unfair that Immigration Bureau ignores all the reasons above but order him deportation.
Besides cooking, Claudio Peña is also good at drawing.
He made many artworks describing what happened in East Japan Immigration Center.
When a detainee and named Deniz attempted suicide, Claudio drew the incident in a picture, with a message that he should be released immediately.
This shocking drawing attracted public attention.
Claudio Peña is so a kind person.
In spite of his own difficulties, he often helps other detainees.
For example, he shares his possessions with others.
He negotiated with the officers patiently for immediate medication for his friend Deniz when he suffered from toothache.
It is the time for him to be released.
(June 17, 2020, two weeks after his release from immigration detention)
Hi, I am PEÑA Claudio.
I live in Japan for 25 years.
I lost my visa.
It’s so tough, but ….
I have now so many people to support me.
I really, really appreciate it.
And … I will do my best to be recognized as a refugee.
Japan’s asylum process is considerably strict, but I won’t give up, although it’s so tough to live under the status of Provisional Release.
To all my supporters, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you so much to everybody for supporting me.
And … I want to say to all the refugees in the world: Just fight, just fight.
I wish you a success.
