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 Monday, Feb. 7, 2000Four more migrants deportedVANCOUVER (CP) -- Immigration officials have deported four more Chinese migrants that arrived by boat in British Columbia last summer.Four adult men were flown to Beijing over the weekend, Citizenship and Immigration spokeswoman Janis Harper said Monday. "They were at the stage where they were ready for removal," Harper said. The men had either withdrawn or abandoned their refugee claims or had been turned down by the Immigration and Refugee Board, Harper said. Chinese officials had provided travel documents so the men could be removed from Canada. Six men believed to have been crew members aboard one of the ships were deported in early December. Almost 600 Chinese migrants from Fujian province arrived off the West Coast last summer aboard four decrepit human smuggling ships. Most made refugee claims. So far 159 refugee claims have been rejected by the board and four accepted. Another 70 claims were abandoned and 13 withdrawn. There are about 30 more migrants ready for removal, Harper said. Authorities are awaiting travel documents. Meanwhile, police and immigration officials are bracing for another influx of illegal immigration this summer. Bev Busson, the new assistant commissioner in charge of all RCMP operations in B.C., said the force will be better prepared. "I think last summer and the boats that arrived here off the coast of British Columbia took the whole policing community and the community generally by surprise," Busson said Monday. Since then, she said, the RCMP has been working with immigration and authorities in other jurisdictions "to plan better for these kinds of issues as they arise and have a better response."
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