VANCOUVER - The Ministry for Children and Families says it will remove the Chinese migrant children from C.F.B. Esquimalt as of Monday.

As many as 53 children could come under the ministry's care.

Many are in hearings today to determine whether they can be released.

Vaughan Dowie is with the Ministry. He says they'll be sent first to a group facility in Greater Vancouver.

It's a move, he says, to get to know who the children are.

Dowie says if the children are cousins, second cousins, or neighbours for example, they'll try to keep them together when appropriate.

And he says in some instances they want to keep kids apart. There are concerns that some of the children are enforcers or spies for the gangs that arranged to bring the migrants to Canada.