Wednesday, August 25

KIM LUNMAN
British Columbia Bureau
Wednesday, August 25, 1999

Victoria -- Police have conducted strip searches on dozens of children who arrived on a smugglers' ship from China two weeks ago and five of the children, including an eight-year-old girl, have been separated from their mothers.

A lawyer for the Chinese migrants said several girls, as young as 12, were strip-searched by female police constables last weekend after talking to lawyers in trailers at the detention site.

"I was shocked and appalled," said Marlene Tyshynski, who said she was told by the RCMP that the teenagers were strip-searched for security reasons because of concerns that they might have concealed items, such as weapons, during interviews in the lawyers' makeshift offices.

She said the police later changed the procedure to frisking the teens, who were released Monday and transferred into the care of the Ministry of Children and Families pending their refugee claims.

RCMP Constable Tracey Rook confirmed that strip searches were conducted last weekend.
She said yesterday that most of the migrants -- including dozens of minors -- detained at the navy base were strip-searched after police found rocks in their bedding.

"There had been a number of incidents," she said. "They were bringing rocks in the building." She said others used "defiant hand signals" to police officers at the base.

"It was a safety and security concern," she said, adding the searches required the removal of clothes but no body-cavity searches.

Lawyers for the youths aboard the smugglers' ship, the second to arrive in B.C. from China's Fujian province in a month, have been critical of the tight security involving the children. They were handcuffed during immigration hearings last week.

A total of 39 youngsters, aged 11 to 17, who had travelled alone from Fujian are living with social workers under the province's care. They were transferred to a vacated wing in a provincial seniors' residence in Burnaby.

Five other children who made the 60-day voyage to Canada with their mothers were taken into foster care as the four women were transferred to a Vancouver jail. The ship's youngest passenger, an eight-year-old girl, was distraught when told she would be separated from her mother.

"Her eyes were just filling with tears and she was shaking her head," Ms. Tyshynski said. "She was silent. It was horrible."

Immigration officials confirmed yesterday the four women who have been separated from their children have been detained for another week while authorities determine their identities.

"It's absolutely absurd," said Rory Morahan, a Victoria lawyer who represented three of the women at immigration hearings.

"Mothers aren't going to be able to go on the run," he said. "They've got to feed their children."

Canada Immigration spokeswoman Lorna Tessier said it is normal procedure for authorities to place children of adults detained under the Immigration Act into the care of provincial child-welfare authorities.

"This was something all the accompanying relatives agreed too," she said. "Nothing was forced."

The children were among 131 passengers aboard the smugglers' ship seized by the RCMP in British Columbia waters two weeks ago. They were rescued by Canadian authorities after the ship's crew dumped them on a remote beach in the Queen Charlotte Islands.

All but 57 of the passengers have been deemed eligible to claim refugee status. The 57 have been ordered deported but lawyers are appealing those decisions.

The ship's crew, nine men believed to be South Korean, are to appear in a Victoria court tomorrow on charges of causing a person to disembark at sea. The Immigration Act charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail and a $500,000 fine. Police believe the smugglers have ties to organized crime.

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