VANCOUVER - Immigration officials have deported the first of the Chinese migrants who arrived off the B.C. coast over the summer.

'I think we're taking a very appropriate response.'

Immigration spokesperson Rob Johnston says six migrants who were being held in jail in Prince George were put on a plane back to China yesterday, "I think that we're taking a very appropriate response. We're satisfied that the process does work, and we'll continue to make removals when cases become removal-ready."

The six men had not applied for refugee status.

But five hundred other Chinese migrants have applied to stay in Canada.

Thirty-nine other migrants have had their refugee applications rejected, but some of them still have the option of appealing.

One woman has been accepted as a refugee, because she feared forced sterilization if she were to be sent back to China.

Sixty-four other migrants have disappeared.