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,Êbut 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.