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Friday, August 13, 1999

Poor take rusty boat, while the wealthy fly
How smugglers get illegal migrants into Canada

Marina Jimenez
National Post

Chuck Stoody, The Canadian Press
Immigration officials escort crew members from the Korean vessel at Port Hardy, B.C., yesterday.

Planes, boats or automobiles?

Wealthy Chinese migrants looking for an illegal way into Canada do not get on rusted fishing boats -- they buy false visitor's visas, and climb on board commercial aircraft.

"Taking the plane is the rich man's way. The boat is mostly for poor peasants with an incredibly romantic notion that North America is the Golden Mountain," said James Dubro, who travelled to Fujian province in southeastern China to research Dragons of Crime, a book on human smuggling and the international gangs who control it.

While the sea-borne arrival of Canada's most recent boatload of Chinese migrants has inspired criticism of Canada's apparently lenient immigration laws, the vast majority of those seeking refugee status do not wash up on Canadian shores. They fly in or arrive by crossing the U.S. border by land.

The 130 Chinese men, women and children dumped Wednesday morning 50 metres from the rocky shores of Kunghit Island, the southernmost of the remote Queen Charlotte Islands, likely could not afford to pay for a $2,000 commercial flight and arrange for travel documents, so they made the journey on the Hueg Ryong Pusan No. 705, a Korean driftnet ship.

Most of the undocumented passengers who make refugee claims in Canada come in by air or across the U.S. border, say immigration and customs authorities.

"Our numbers at Pearson airport are significantly higher than those arriving by boat," said Dave Cumming, program manager of Citizenship and Immigration at Pearson International Airport in Toronto.

"Immigration control officers work with airlines around the world trying to prevent undocumented people from getting on planes."

China has launched a crackdown on "snakeheads" or smugglers, but in Fujian province, smugglers still flaunt their services for a trans-Pacific journey by air or sea.

"Smugglers in Fujian province are all over the place. If you want to buy phony passports and visas, it's all pretty open," said Mr. Dubro.

Flying to Canada takes no more than a day, and involves almost no risk or discomfort. Many take circuitous routes, flying to Canada via Europe, South Africa or South America. They may be accompanied by a runner or courier, who collects their counterfeit passport and visas before they land.

Sea-faring passengers face 40-day journeys on rough seas, often crammed into the hold of decrepit vessels. But they can arrive en masse, without having to purchase counterfeit identification.

Passengers are usually picked up in Fujian province, and then transported by boat to a larger vessel. In some cases, smugglers confiscate the identification of their human cargo at the beginning of the journey.

The smugglers are well-organized, with links to corrupt local government officials in China and gang members in Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States. The Koreans arrested this week are believed to have been hired by a bigger smuggling ring to carry out the journey across the Pacific.

Ship passengers may pay $10,000 as a down payment, with the understanding that they will work in sweatshops, restaurants and in prostitution in Canada or the U.S. to pay off their debt. Those navigating the ships are usually lower-level gang members, and may be poor seamen.

Although many more people may be smuggled into Canada via air, summer is definitely migrant season on the sea.

"The summer is the ideal time for these rusty hulls to successfully make a trans-Pacific voyage," said Major Jim Benninger, operations officer with the Canadian Air Force's Squadron 407, which first spotted the Korean vessel.

B.C.'s long, craggy coastline with its many small inlets is difficult to patrol. Coast Guard vessels and long-range Aurora military aircraft patrol waters the size of B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan. On any given day 600 ships are on the ocean, including cruise ships, fishing trawlers, pleasure boats and war ships. The Auroras visually inspect the ocean beneath them, while sonars on the sea bed can also covertly track ships.

"It's a huge, huge task," said Gerry Pash, public affairs officer with CFB's Maritime Pacific headquarters in Esquimalt. "We've changed the nature of our maritime patrols as a result of migrant ships and are now watching the great circle routes from Asia to the west coast."

There is also a "coastal watch" program similar to a "neighbourhood watch" involving communities on the west coast of B.C., Vancouver Island, the Queen Charlotte Islands as well as fishing lodges that anchor in remote areas. They report suspicious boats and activities to Esquimalt's Maritime Pacific headquarters.

"You've really got to catch these guys when they're in open water. Once they're ashore, they are harder to detect," said Maj. Benninger. "We expect there to be more of these migrant ships until the weather turns sour."




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