Tuesday, January 11, 2000 Migrants linked to Vancouver at immigration hearing
18 more illegals -- three of them dead -- discovered in Seattle
Ellen van Wageningen
The Windsor Star, with files from The Associated Press
Ted Rhodes, The Windsor Star
At least some of the 10 Chinese migrants captured near Windsor last week had been in Vancouver before their arrest.
|
Ted Rhodes, the Windsor Star
Three of 10 Chinese women charged under the Immigration Act for eluding examination or misrepresenting themself at Walpole Island last week were inconsolable prior to the start of an immigration hearing in Windsor yesterday.
|
WINDSOR - At least some of the 10 Chinese migrants believed to be destined for the United States when they were arrested last week had previously been in Vancouver.
Photos of four girls on the Capilano suspension bridge and in Stanley Park were presented at an immigration hearing yesterday in Windsor. A diary kept by one of the girls also mentioned locations in Vancouver and contained a receipt from a bank there dated Dec. 22.
Meanwhile, another 18 illegal immigrants -- three of them dead -- were discovered yesterday aboard a container ship in Seattle, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service reported. It was the third such incident in recent days and the first involving fatalities.
The migrants were found inside a soft-topped container aboard a vessel from Hong Kong and the survivors were taken into custody, said Irene Mortensen, INS spokeswoman.
The survivors were in INS custody but were taken immediately to hospital.
"We have 15 Chinese men here, all showing signs of malnutrition and dehydration," said hospital spokesman Larry Zalin.
Canadian Immigration investigators believe the 10 girls found near the Canada-U.S. border last week "are part of the Chinese smuggling scheme" reported by media. "We also believe they have been tight-lipped because they have been coached to say very little," said Marc Bourgeois, the case presenting officer for Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
"Given their age, it seems more likely to me they're probably just terrified," said Daniel Winbaum, the lawyer appointed to represent the girls. "They're ... unable to speak the language and unsure about their circumstances."
Ilze De Carlo, the Immigration and Refugee Board adjudicator, ordered the continued detention of the 10 girls because, if released, they are not likely to show up for future hearings.
Six of the girls, who were believed to be 17 and 18 years old, told the hearing that they are younger.
Nine of the girls told immigration officials they came to Canada by boat and are charged with eluding examination. The other, Yun Li, 17, claimed she arrived by air and is charged with misrepresenting herself to immigration authorities. Their immigration inquiries on those charges are scheduled to start Jan. 18 and Jan. 19.
The photographs and fingerprints of the girls don't match any of the Chinese migrants arrested by immigration officials this past summer from four ships off the West Coast, Mr. Bourgeois said. All are believed to be from the Chinese province of Fujian.
Ms. De Carlo told them that one of her concerns about releasing them is that "the very issue of your identities remains in doubt."
When the girls were arrested just after midnight on Jan. 5, they weren't carrying identification, passports or travel documents, Mr. Bourgeois said. They claimed to have no money.
Among their possessions were six photographs -- three of the Vancouver area with four girls resembling several at the hearing and three in a residence with an unidentified family. Numbers on the back include the abbreviation for the month of August.
The diary entries, which include English descriptions of visits to tourist attractions in the Vancouver area, were undated.
The girls were found in the back of a van during a routine traffic stop by OPP officers in Wallaceburg, Ont. The driver of the van, Robin Soney, 28, and his mother, Jackie Soney, 48, have been charged by the RCMP with aiding and abetting smuggling.
The van they were driving was suspected of being used to transport people to Walpole Island -- a native reserve -- to be smuggled into the United States, Mr. Bourgeois said.
RELATED SITES:
(Each link opens a new window)
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
The brand-new white paper on immigration policy
Statistics Canada: Immigration and Citizenship
Statistics from the 1996 national census that look at where Canadians came from.
|
![[e-Xchange]](../images/e2.gif)
