Japanese student seeks Australian asylum

[yukio_michael]

From The Age, and Melbourne Herald Sun

A Japanese PhD student has applied for asylum in Australia, even though she says she has no fear of the Japanese government.

Megumi Ogawa, who has been studying in Australia since 1999, was due to be deported to Japan after her student visa expired and she failed in several legal actions seeking to stay here.

But following her extraordinary application for asylum, her deportation has been delayed while the department of immigration assesses it.

~ and

I do not want to be deported," she said.

"All my belongings are in Brisbane. Everybody thinks this situation is unjust, even Australian people.

"I'm still in Villawood and there's no prospect for a future and if I'm deported my research is probably ... almost come to an end."

It's obvious she is just stalling so that she can try to get her things together... but is this situation really 'unjust' ? I don't know in what situations she failed legally to obtain a visa extension...

I do know that even causual and legal visitors to Japan can be denied entry, It's a wretched thing to leave a country where the remainder of your bellongings lie... I wonder what her status would be if she were a foreigner in Japan, in a similar situation?

 

[nice gaijin]

It's just a last ditch effort to avoid getting deported. I think this is an abuse of a system set up to protect people who REALLY need asylum.

 

[RockLee]

Desperate times ask for desperate measures ! I wouldn't know what the actual reason is, that would mean I could read minds.

 

[Mike Cash]

So can I mail all my stuff to Australia and use that as a basis for applying for landing as a permanent resident? That would be so cool.

I have found that most of the Japanese I have met have very, very uninformed ideas when it comes to matters of visas/immigration. You wouldn't believe how many I have talked to who think all I have to do to obtain Japanese citizenship is transfer my 住民票 from America to Japan, just as one transfers one's registered residence from one city to another within Japan.

 

[MajideSaiaku]

I cant live in Japan because I cant work in Japan, thankyou J-gov, for making a partner of one of your citizens feel so welcome (aslong as I go back to whatever foreign pit I came from).

Why cant this Japanese student apply for Australian citizenship, I always thought western citizenship was a push-over compared to Japan, at least in Europe.

Hell, I can go live and work anywhere in the EU (shame I didnt date a European woman..*joking*).

I see no reason why Australia doesnt want her, she's obviously educated, and she has a life there it seems, if she applied for proper citizenship I dont see why she wouldnt get it.

 

[misa.j]

I'm sure she doesn't realize that this kind of act can make it difficult for other Japanese to get a student visa in the future.

My F1 visa was good for a year, but I could stay after the expiration date as long as I was enrolled as a full-time student in a school, and I did stay 5 more months.

 

[yukio_michael]

From here, by way of this link. Another blurb:

Megumi Ogawa was detained in May after a long-running battle with the Department of Immigration and the University of Melbourne, which discontinued her enrolment in the late stages of her PhD because she was 21 days late in applying for an extension to her candidature.

On Friday, a federal magistrate, Stephen Scarlett, upheld a decision by the Migration Review Tribunal that she was not entitled to a bridging visa while awaiting her case against Melbourne University - to be heard in the High Court in December...

Ms Ogawa said outside the Federal Magistrate's Court on Friday: "[The] judge even says this decision is unjust. Every court considers it unjust, but every court will not do anything, so this is a strong message to international students, how dangerous it is to study in Australia."

It seems to be a gross abuse of the asylum system used simply as stated for 'legal maneuvering'...

I don't know for certain, I would doubt that she simply wanted Australian citizenship, just an extension on her visa, which seems to have been placed in some sort of jeopordy due to a disagreement with a faculty member.

It may be 'unjust', but immigration isn't always just--- just ast immigration isn't always fair, when we feel it involves ourselves.

 

[yukio_michael]

It is possible that her suit against the university may be resolved before she is finally deported. She will be billed at the rate of $225 a day for the time she spends in detention, including the two months spent there already.

That's another unpleasantness... being billed for the privledge of staying in what ammounts to Hotel Immigration Jail.

 

[gaijinalways]

Sounds like a desperate attempt to finish a degree. Maybe my problem with the British immigration, I wasn't desperate enough looking (or sounding)!