Japanese government claims success in campaign against illegal immigration
The number of reported cases of foreigners overstaying their visas in Japan has nearly halved in the last 5 years. The government has claimed its airport fingerprint scanners played a major role:
The Immigration Bureau said it has stepped up its efforts, jointly with police, to crack down on those overstaying their visas — especially since 2004, when the government’s plan was put into effect.
The introduction of a biometric system has helped immigration officials stem the re-entry of those who have been deported, the bureau said. In the year since it was introduced in November 2007, 846 people have been refused entry on the basis of biometric verification.
By nationality, South Koreans topped the list of those staying longer than allowed as of Jan. 1 at around 24,000, followed 18,000 Chinese, 17,000 Filipinos, 6,000 Thais and 5,000 Taiwanese, according to the survey.
Meanwhile, the Yomiuri reports that the government wants to pass a new law that will allow greater control over the issue of alien registration cards:
The draft legislation to revise the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law states that the justice minister will issue new residence cards to aliens staying in Japan for mid- to long-term periods of time.
The current alien registration certificates issued by municipal governments will be abolished, and foreigners will instead use the new cards as identification.
The draft bill also includes provisions to imprison or deport people who forge the envisaged cards.
This could mean that that the Immigration bureau will now handle registration and alterations of information on alien registration cards. Less visits to city hall, and more visits to the long lines at Immigration branch offices!
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I suppose if it was never a real problem that it’s easy to claim success
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fingerprinting – fight terrorism or keep out illegals – you now have the answer. if it was EVER about terrorism they would fingerprint everyone as the only terror attacks here in japan have been by the japanese themselves.
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Anyone know how many people they netted annually before fingerprinting was introduced? That seems like the key to me.
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The practical problem with this is more mundane.
Instead of walking down to the local town office to get our gaijin cards, usually with no wait in line because the “alien registration desk” is rarely used, we have to haul ourselves at our own expense to the single Immigration Office in the whole city? [In Osaka, it means quite a long train journey for some out to the new Immigration Office on the bay.]
Add in that it’s 2 visits, one to apply, and one to pick up, IF they don’t screw up something.
Wait in line to submit a form and get a number to wait again in the waiting area? Basically a process that took maybe 1 hour of your life max will now take about 2 half-days.
Hope the hell they plan on having more than 4 or 5 open windows at the counter from now on. Or some kind of gaijin card Express Lane.
Any bets our hopes will not be met?
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How can they claim that the installment of the biometric system has anything to do with it?? They installed the system about 15 months ago, but they compare data from now and 5 years ago!
Never trust a statistics that you didn’t forge yourself!
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