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Monday, August 16, 1999

B.C. residents tell newspaper poll they want 250 migrants returned to China
97% favour deportation


The Times Colonist

VICTORIA - A record number of respondents to a poll in a British Columbia newspaper want more than 250 Chinese migrants who have landed on the West Coast to go back home.

The 3,362 respondents answered an unscientific poll by Victoria's newspaper, The Times Colonist, on Saturday about whether the migrants should be sent back to their country of origin. The response was an overwhelming yes.

Of the poll respondents, 97% said they felt compassion for the Chinese migrants but that they should be returned home to enter Canada legally.

Two separate boatloads of Chinese refugees have arrived on British Columbia's shores in less than a month.

The latest group of 131 people -- who are believed to have spent a harrowing 58 days at sea -- arrived last week and includes children, one as young as eight.

Respondent John Scratchley said Canada must stop being a doormat for illegal migrants.

"This is about people doing illegal acts and leap-frogging all those would-be immigrants who are complying with the necessary requirements for entry into this country," Mr. Scratchley said.

Dr. D. Liang, who came to Canada from China in 1965, said the boat people are not refugees, but immigrants who should take the legal route.

"Although [they are] not illegal, it is my considered opinion that they should not even be allowed to land on Canadian soil," Dr. Liang said. "They should be returned to their point of origin with the reassurance that their application through normal channels would receive sympathetic consideration."

 
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