Friday, August 13

JANE ARMSTRONG and KIM LUNMAN
The Globe and Mail; With a report from Reuters and Canadian Press
Friday, August 13, 1999

Vancouver and Victoria -- JANE ARMSTRONG
in Vancouver
KIM LUNMAN
in Victoria

Another mysterious, unmarked ship could be headed for Canada from Asia, arriving some time within a month, a police source said yesterday.

The ship was reportedly seen by other vessels making its way east to North America. At the last report, it was still closer to China than North America, the source said.

Yet another ship would bring to three the number of illegal vessels to arrive on Canada's West Coast this summer. A fourth mystery ship was seen abandoned off the Queen Charlotte Islands last month, but sank before authorities could reach it. Police believe its passengers may have slipped into Canada.

Police, meanwhile, want to have a closer look at the 50-metre Korean ship that dumped 130 Chinese, including 20 children, into the Pacific in life jackets Wednesday, then took off.

The ship later surrendered to police in international waters 80 kilometres off shore. RCMP officers guided the ship to Port Hardy, where crew members were charged with human smuggling.

Police plan to scour the vessel to pinpoint where the eight-member Korean crew had planned to dock.

They appeared before a justice of the peace later yesterday afternoon.

The suspected smugglers tried to make a run for international waters Tuesday after dumping their human cargo as close as they could get to shore in the choppy waters off Kunghit Island at the southernmost tip of the Queen Charlotte Islands.

RCMP Constable Tracey Rook said the men were charged with two offences under the Immigration Act, including human smuggling and causing the disembarkment of immigrants onto Canadian shores. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail and a $500,000 fine.

Citizenship and Immigration spokesman George Varnai conceded the charged men could make a refugee claim if they desire because they are now in Canada.

Meanwhile, all 130 Chinese passengers from Wednesday's boat arrival were expected to arrive today at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt in suburban Victoria.

Police believe the lucrative human-smuggling trade is run by organized criminals operating out of Asia and North America.

The Chinese organizers -- called snakeheads -- charge up to $40,000 (U.S.) per passenger. They arrange for a group of people to greet the illegal boatload of passengers once it reaches North America and to escort the passengers into Canada.

The earlier ship arrived with 123 passengers on July 20. So far, 86 have been released and 37 remain in custody. Of those who have been released, most are living in Vancouver, awaiting refugee hearings and receiving welfare payments of $500 a month.

Police are investigating 20 of those in detention for their role in the smuggling operation. However, no one has been charged with any offence, but Immigration adjudicators have agreed to keep them in custody until their identities and roles in the operation can be sorted out.

An Immigration and Citizenship enforcement official said yesterday that the investigation has entered a "new stage."

Murray Wilkinson said the suspects are now being investigated for their respective actions during the vessel's harrowing 38-day voyage. Conditions on that ship were abysmal and the vessel stalled at sea more than once because of engine failure.

"Not only do we remain concerned about the identity of all these people, we are also concerned about the acts they engaged in in the smuggling activities and we are conducting an investigation," Mr. Wilkinson said.

In addition, all future detention hearings for the 20 suspects will be held in private, he added, to "protect the investigation." He refused to elaborate on the nature of these offences.

Meanwhile, the latest immigrants arrived shortly after noon yesterday at a government wharf in Port Hardy, escorted by police. Two Coast Guard vessels carried more than 100 of the immigrants; the Tanu carried about 40 women and 20 children and the Arrow Post about 70 males. They were taken to four buses to be transported across Vancouver Island to the Esquimalt navy base near Victoria, where they are expected to be detained at a military gymnasium today for medical exams.

They were greeted by TV camera crews, reporters and a throng of 100 curious spectators including a clutch of protesters, some of whom carried signs that said, "Feed our people first."

Constable Rook confirmed police had been tipped off to the vessel early Monday but refused to disclose any details.

"One [RCMP] detachment received a tip from an unconfirmed report," she said.

Constable Rook would not say whether the tip was related to an ongoing investigation into the first boatload of 123 Chinese migrants.

Four men from the Korean ship who hid on the remote island Wednesday night before surrendering to an RCMP rescue team yesterday morning were flown late yesterday to Victoria, with another immigrant who had been treated at hospital overnight at Queen Charlotte City.

The man in hospital suffered hypothermia from the frigid swim ashore Tuesday and was rescued with the first group of immigrants. All five were deemed in good condition late yesterday.

Meanwhile, Vancouver Reform MP John Reynolds called yesterday on Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan to exercise her power to declare the accused eight smugglers a danger to the public and have them deported immediately.

"They should be shipped back. Why should we go through a whole trial? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell what was going on."

However, in an interview yesterday, Ms. Caplan said smuggling is "an international problem that requires international co-operation and international solutions.

"Canada is working with those countries who are facing a similar phenomenon: the United States, Australia, New Zealand and some of the European countries that have marine borders."

She said Canada is a "world leader" when it comes to intercepting immigrants abroad before they arrive here. "We intercepted last year some 6,000 individuals that were destined for Canada."

Meanwhile, a freighter flying the flag of Cyprus is being detained at Savannah, Ga., after 132 illegal aliens were found hiding on board.

The Mandarin-speaking stowaways, all of them men, are assumed to be from China, said Amy Otten, a U.S. Immigration Service spokeswoman.

Poison mystery heightens army furor
Investigators say toxins may have been fed to ailing peacekeeper
by Jeff Sallot - Friday, August 13, 1999

Peacekeepers suspicious of army offer of help
by Daniel Leblanc - Friday, August 13, 1999

Another no-name ship reportedly on the way
Vessel could be latest in a series going to B.C.
by Jane Armstrong and Kim Lunman - Friday, August 13, 1999

Speed up refugee applications: lawyer
Threat of quick hearing, deportation might stem flow of illegal newcomers
by Brian Laghi - Friday, August 13, 1999