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VICTORIA, British Columbia (Reuters) - Canadian authorities seized a decrepit boat loaded with 190 illegal migrants off the country's west coast Tuesday, uncovering the third attempt to smuggle human cargo into the country by sea in just five weeks.
In what has become a familiar and controversial scene, Canadian immigration officials and the Mounties boarded the unmarked boat near the northern tip of Vancouver Island and found the largest group yet of would-be refugees, some of them women and teenagers, officials said.
``It definitely meets the profile of a smuggling vessel,'' Canadian Citizenship and Immigration department spokesman George Varnai said.
A Coast Guard ship began towing the rusty vessel and its passengers down the western Vancouver Island coast, but authorities became concerned over its seaworthiness and evacuated it. The migrants were moved aboard three military and police ships for the final leg of the trip to Gold River, British Columbia.
Varnai said the migrants appeared to be from China's Fujian province, the same origin of more than 250 illegal immigrants who arrived on Canadian shores earlier this summer in incidents that have sparked intense debate over what many Canadians believe to be lax immigration policies.
The ship's markings were painted over and it flew no flags, similar to the two that brought the other Chinese migrants across the Pacific ocean to Canada.
A Canadian military aircraft first discovered the ship Monday while doing routine surveillance and authorities tracked it for about 12 hours before boarding it.
The migrants, some of whom were suffering from hypothermia and stomach pains after the estimated 72-day journey, were to be taken by bus to Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt near the British Columbia capital of Victoria to be given shelter and processed by immigration authorities, Varnai told a news conference in Vancouver.
In July, a similar dilapidated boat was discovered off Vancouver Island carrying 123 Chinese migrants who had made a six-week journey hoping to be smuggled into Canada.
Three weeks later, another unmarked ship dumped 150 illegal Chinese immigrants into the Pacific Ocean off the Queen Charlotte Islands north of Vancouver Island, forcing them to wade ashore in stormy seas.
The boat people's arrival has touched off heated debate among Canadians, many of whom have intensified calls for Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan to get tough on the issue of refugee policies.
People who arrive on Canadian shores can remain in Canada for 11 months while their refugee claims are processed, a period critics charge is too long and encourages smuggling.
The latest incident came just as a Globe and Mail-CTV poll showed nearly half of Canadians surveyed believe the Chinese boat people should be deported immediately.
Russ Hellberg, mayor of the north Vancouver Island town of Port Hardy, where the second group of people were initially taken, said calls for deportation of the migrants among the 5,000 residents of the town were growing louder by the day.
``Don't forget we're right at the front line here,'' Hellberg said. ``We have nothing against humanitarian aid. We live right on the ocean and we know what the north Pacific can do. But they shouldn't come ashore -- they should just refuel the boat, give them provisions and send them back where they came from.''
Authorities believe many of the smuggling boats are operated by Asian crime
gangs, who sometimes charge the immigrants more than $40,000 to make the
dangerous and uncomfortable journey.
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