be deported allegedly for lack of Vietnamese nationality, they were forced into long-term detention. There seems to be a significant number of people who entered Japan using false passports around 1990 and have stayed in Japan for more than ten years only to be found as illegal immigrants.128 When the authorities tried to execute removal orders, these irregular immigrants had nowhere to go as they are stateless without documents to prove their nationality. The consequence is long-term detention. The country they claim to be from has refused to accept them due to the lack of documents to prove their nationality.129 Article 53(1) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act (Immigration Act) provides that "Any person subject to deportation shall be deported to a country of which he/she is a national or citizen". Article 53(2) then goes on to provide 6 possible outcomes where "... the person cannot be deported to such a country as set forth in the preceding paragraph, such a person shall be deported to any of the following countries pursuant to her/his wishes." It is possible that Article 53(2) can be applied to stateless applicants, but even when a person wishes to be deported to a certain country, that country may decline to accept the person, and it is generally understood that they are then placed in limbo because deportation cannot be implemented. In one case, a person was provisionally released after a detention of two and a half years and was able to acquire a Special Permit for Residence three years hence.130 However, others remain in unstable circumstances under provisional release. 131 Some cannot leave Japan and are unable to join their families awaiting them abroad. One such person, named Vi, who was detained for three years and has been provisionally released, expressed his feelings132: 128 Some typical cases are described in detail in the above mentioned Application filed with the Tokyo District Court. 129 The Annual Statistics on Immigration, 2007 reveals that the deportation order was issued to 5 stateless persons and it was executed with regard to 4 stateless persons in that year. See http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/List.do?lid=000001029662. In cases dealt with in the above-mentioned application, plaintiffs were treated as Vietnamese nationals, not stateless persons. The problem was that this nationality determined by the Immigration Bureau was not recognized by the Vietnamese authorities. Nevertheless, the plaintiffs were to be deported to Vietnam, resulting in their long term detention. 130 The above-mentioned Application, p.12. 131 The Immigration Act provides in Article 52 (6) that “if it is found that [an] alien cannot be deported”, the director of an immigration detention center or supervising immigration inspector may release him/her on conditions as may be deemed necessary. It has not been confirmed how many have indeed benefited from this special parole system. 132 Chen, supra note 4, p.225. 49