Her child has cried every day since she left China more than two
months ago.
According to relatives reached in Fujian province yesterday, the
five-year-old always asks the same question: "When is mommy coming
home?"
The woman's husband always gives the same answer: "Mom is away,
but when she comes back, she'll bring us good fortune, and we'll
lead a better life."
Through telephone numbers which emerged from an Immigration
detention hearing, The Province and the Chinese-language newspaper
Ming Pao were yesterday able to reach an aunt and uncle of a
32-year-old woman who was one of 131 migrants to arrive in B.C. by
boat last week.
The woman is one of 58 people excluded from making refugee
claims.
She remains in detention in Esquimalt as the government seeks the
documents necessary to send her home. But her uncle fears the
punishment that awaits his niece when she is returned to China.
The woman -- who relatives asked us not to name for fear of
reprisal -- is the first in her large peasant family to leave China.
She lives in a village near the city of Fuzhou, and her family had
to borrow money to pay the more than $30,000 US for the voyage.
Her uncle said the woman promised to work the money off,Ębut at a
staggering interest rate of $200 US per month per $10,000 she owes.
That amounts to $7,200 US per year.
It is a staggering interest rate inconceivable to a dirt-poor
family who were staking their lives on the woman reaching North
America, finding a job and sending money home.
The woman was unemployed and her husband only worked from time to
time.
They have no land, no money, no phone and until they heard about
the possibility of the boat to Canada -- they thought they had no
future.
Now says her uncle, she would be fined by Chinese police when she
comes home. Canadian immigration officials called the aunt and uncle
earlier to ascertain the woman's identity.
The aunt sent identification and registration documents to
Canada. But it wasn't learned until yesterday why the information
was needed: To send the woman home.
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