THE Philippine government said yesterday it was closely monitoring a controversial immigration row in Japan involving a Filipino couple and their daughter.

The couple faces deportation because they entered Japan on fake passports 17 years ago. They are appealing their case so their 13-year-old daughter, Noriko, who was born in Japan and only speaks Japanese, can finish school.

The Japanese government has said the girl may stay in Japan alone but told her parents to leave. When a deadline passed on Monday, authorities detained her father, Arlan Cruz Calderon, 36.

The 38-year-old mother was not detained but warned that the entire family would be deported next week unless the parents went voluntarily, with or without their daughter, the family?s lawyer said earlier this week.

More than 20,000 people in Japan have signed a petition asking the government to allow all three to stay.

The case has attracted the attention of Amnesty International as well as the UN Human Rights Council, which has asked for information about the case.

?The Department of Foreign Affairs is closely monitoring the case of the Calderon family,? spokesman Esteban Conejos said in a statement.

?The Philippine Embassy in Tokyo is in touch with the family on the matter of their residency status,? he said.

The embassy, he said, was prepared to ?extend humanitarian assistance? to the family, including help with reintegration to the Philippines if they were sent home. AFP