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.
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 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.
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