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Back in the mid 1990s, Japan begin to have a serious problem with visa over stayers from Iran. They had a visa free visit policy (up to 90 days) for tourists from certain countries (such as the USA) which are considered friendly and unlikely to produce over stayers. Iran was on this list as a legacy from the days of the Shah when Islam was non threatening and the government was mostly secular and friendly with the west and their allies.

Anyway, Iranian single men (surprise, surprise) begin fleeing the Islamofascist regime in droves and soon ran out of funds because (a)Japan is expensive and (b)illegal employment is not easy to get like it is in the USA. Many of them turned to petty crimes such as selling doctored or counterfeit telephone cards, but their numbers became a nuisance because they liked to congregate around major railroad stations in Tokyo to ply their wares.

Someone came up with a brilliant plan to host a Persian festival near the chic and trendy Harajuku area where there would be food, music and a good time for all. On the appointed Sunday when the festival was well underway, nearly every cop and immigration official in the Tokyo area, cordoned off the crowd and swept in to check passports and visa status of everyone who even looked remotely Iranian. If they couldn't produce the documents, then it was into a paddy wagon and off to a detention center. They filled something like 18 buses.

Once they were sorted out, the relative handful who were eligible to stay were released and the remainder were herded on to planes as they became available for a one way trip back home. It was done with such precision that those who were lucky enough not to attend the festival were out of the country within a matter of weeks either by volunteering to get on the free flights out or getting rounded up randomly where they were booked, fingerprinted and put on a list ineligible to ever enter Japan again.

Yeah, they were free to hire an immigration lawyer and fight the deportation. But the offer of "amnesty" was basically this: "You can have a free flight out with two suitcases now. Or you can fight it and get booked, fingerprinted and deported and ineligible to ever return again in the 99.9% chance that you lost. Which will it be?"

It is funny how few turned down the free flight out offer when it was put in those terms.

Is there a lesson here for us?