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Eve Savory reports for CBC TV.
Jo Mrozewski reports for CBC Radio.
CBC
TELEVISION
COVERAGE:
CLIP:  Sasa Petricic reports on the debate
over smuggled migrants.
A
primer on immigration policy from Norman Hermant
CBC
RADIO
COVERAGE:
ON AIR: Cross-Country Checkup, Sun: Are Canadians suckers to let in illegal
migrants?
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Second immigrant group in
custody, third may be on the way
WebPosted Fri Aug 13 18:23:28 1999
PORT HARDY, B.C. - Another group of
Chinese immigrants is in custody at CFB Esquimalt after the second
ship carrying human cargo was apprehended Wednesday and there are
reports a third ship may also be headed for the B.C. coast.
- RELATED: What
are your thoughts on illegal migrants? Send in your letters.
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Canada isn't the only country trying to deal with
immigrant smuggling.
U.S. immigration officials were questioning Friday the crew
of a ship in Savannah, Ga., after 132 Chinese men were found
hiding on board.
Authorities had to cut through a welded section of the ship
to get to the men.
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RCMP and immigration officers, the illegal immigrants plucked off a
beach on the Queen Charlotte Islands arrived Friday at the Vancouver
Island military base where the earlier group of smuggled refugee
claimants had stayed.
The base is their home while officials identify them and discover
why they were being smuggled into Canada.
Like the previous group, many are expected to eventually claim
refugee status, after a series of immigration hearings.
The two vessels have brought more than two hundred illegal
immigrants to Canada's shores in the last month and a Chinese
diplomat blames Canada's lax laws for encouraging illegal passage.
Ping Huan, the consul general at the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa,
says he was surprised when Immigration Canada released some of the
people who arrived in boats off the B.C. coast last month. Word of
their freedom quickly travels back to China, he said.
Meanwhile Friday, the Chinese newspaper Ming Pao reported
that a third ship is on its way from Fujian, the same Chinese
province where the first two illegal immigrant ships originated.
Ming Pao says the smuggling route passes through Japan and
Guam on its way to Canada. A Vancouver reporter for the paper said
the ship could arrive by September.
There was no official confirmation of the third ship on its way
to the B.C. coast.
As for the second ship, it held about 130 men, women and children
-- and one dog. They were dropped into the water Wednesday, and
picked up shortly after by military and immigration officials who'd
been trailing the smuggling ship.
Police said Thursday they found four passengers who had run into
the woods after they were dropped off and had waded to shore.
The Korean ship which had carried the group tried to escape to
sea but was caught by an RCMP boat. The eight crew members were
taken into custody and face charges under the Immigration Act.
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