Section 2: Categories of persons whose statelessness or risk of statelessness arose while overseas and who subsequently came to Japan Category I [Lack of proof] Persons who cannot establish the nationality of their country of birth or of their parents’ nationality (Sample case from Thailand/Vietnam） Category I is statelessness which arises due to an inability to prove the nationality of the country of purported nationality or the parents’ nationality. < Case 17 > involves a person whose parents are from Vietnam who subsequently fled to Thailand via Laos. The concerned person was born in Thailand. He or she came to Japan subsequently with a forged passport, and when he or she was subject to a deportation procedure, the deportation could not be enforced as he or she could not produce any documents to prove the country of origin or the parents’ nationality. 1. <Case 17> Case summary216 A’s father and mother fled Vietnam to Thailand during the First Indochina War and settled in Thailand as refugees. A’s father and mother met in Thailand, and A was born in 1957. Vietnamese refugees including A and her family were only “persons tolerated temporarily to stay” in Thailand and were subject to various kinds of discrimination including restrictions on their areas of residence and on their choice of profession. A arrived in Japan in 1991 by using a forged passport under the name of a Thai national. A was arrested in 2007 on suspicion of illegal entry and was transferred into an Immigration Bureau detention after being convicted by the court and given a suspended sentence. A stated that he or she “wanted to return to Thailand” as A thought he or she “would be able to go back to Thailand as I was born in Thailand.” However, it was revealed during the court proceedings that the Immigration Bureau had determined A’s nationality to be Vietnamese, and it designated “Vietnam” as the destination country to be deported. At any rate, A was not actually deported to Vietnam, and instead A was given provisional release (ICRRA Article 54) nine months after the arrest. As A was investigated with assistance from a legal representative/attorney, it was revealed that Vietnamese refugees from Thailand who came to Japan, including A, had had their temporary stay permits in Thailand cancelled for departing without acquiring permission from the Thai authorities, and they were unable to return to Thailand. Not being able to return to Thailand and wishing thus to stay in Japan, A filed a suit against the State to cancel the deportation order issued against him or her.217 216 217 Regarding this case, see Abe, pp. 45-46, and Arakaki, p. 49, supra note 2. Tokyo District Court, Judgment, 19 February 2010 (Heisei 22 Nen), Hanrei Times, No.1356, p.146. 110