Dead stowaways found in freighter still unidentified
www.globeandmail.com News Books Careers Mutual Funds Stocks ROB Mag ROBTv Tech Wheels (new)
Home  |  Business  |  National  |  International  |  Sports  |  Features  |  Arts  |  Forums  |  Subscribe

The Globe and Mail
Saturday, Jan. 15
leaf stats

7-Day Search

Tips | What can I search?
Click here to enter the contest
space
Contents
bulletFull Site Index
bulletReport on Business
bulletNational
bulletInternational
bulletSports
bulletGlobe Review
bulletFeatures
bulletComment
bulletFocus
bulletBooks
bulletClassifieds
bulletObituaries
bulletBirths & Deaths
bulletTravel
bulletFood & Dining
bulletHealth
bulletEnvironment
bulletScience
bulletEducation
bulletHoroscopes
bulletFamily Matters
bulletMillennium
bulletToronto News
space
NorstarMall.ca


Current Markets
Enter Canadian or U.S. stock symbol(s) or market index:
 
Stock symbol lookup

Sponsored by:
HSBC InvestDirect

TSE 300 -60.48 8357.46
DJIA +140.55 11722.98
S&P500 +15.47 1465.15
Nasdaq +107.00 4064.2
CDNX +29.10 2557.4
FTSE100 +126.00 6658
Nikkei 18956.6
HSeng -92.00 15542
DJ Net +.95 391.71
Delayed 20 minutes. Help.



 
Services
bulletFull Services Index
bulletAdvertising Info
bulletCustomer Service
bulletCorrections
bulletFree Headlines
bulletHelp & Contact Us
bulletMake Us Home
bulletPrivacy Policy
bulletReprints
bulletSubscriptions
bulletWhat's New
Globe Web Centre
bulletNews: globeandmail.com
bulletBooks: chaptersglobe.com
bulletCareers: globecareers.com
bulletMutual Funds: globefund.com
bulletStocks: globeinvestor.com
bulletROB Magazine: robmagazine.com
bulletROBTv: robtv.com
bulletTechnology: globetechnology.com
bulletWheels: globemegawheels.com
 
Dead stowaways found in freighter still unidentified
Even as human-smuggling casualties lie
in Seattle morgue, 19 more migrants arrive

KIM LUNMAN and JANE ARMSTRONG
The Globe and Mail
Wednesday, January 12, 2000

Victoria and Seattle -- KIM LUNMAN
in Victoria
JANE ARMSTRONG
in Seattle

They made their journey in blackness, side by side with 15 other stowaways crammed into a cargo container the size of a tractor-trailer in a ship that set sail from Asia two weeks ago for an illegal voyage to America.

Now their corpses, all three of them, lie side by side on storage slabs inside the King County morgue in Seattle. There are identification tags around their ankles, marked numbers 56, 57, 58. Nobody knew their names or ages yesterday. Nobody could say where they would be buried.

They are the first known casualties in the human smuggling trade from Asia that has turned to a new trend of concealing stowaways inside cargo crates aboard freighters destined for North American ports.

Early yesterday morning, 19 more Chinese migrants were discovered in a container aboard the Hanjin Yokhama at the Port of Seattle hours after the first container was found. All appeared healthy and were taken to a detention centre.

They are the fourth group of Chinese migrants to be caught in containers at the Port of Seattle since last week. Another 25 Chinese migrants were discovered inside a cargo crate aboard a vessel at the Port of Vancouver last week. That ship was also destined for Seattle. More than 230 Chinese migrants have arrived in cargo containers in California, Washington and B.C. ports since last February.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating the deaths of the three migrants yesterday, said spokeswoman Roberta Burroughs.

U.S. authorities discovered the dead inside the cargo container with 15 survivors aboard the Cape May freighter on Monday. The conditions were described as horrific. There was no food or water left inside the 13-metre-long, soft-topped container that was stacked under tonnes of cargo in four other containers below deck.

Initial autopsy findings released yesterday indicated "no injuries and no infections or natural diseases were responsible for the deaths." The cause of the deaths has not yet been determined.

The other passengers, all men, were found inside shivering and starving. They had few belongings. Some were barefoot. Some had flashlights, the batteries long run down by the time they were discovered in the container that reeked of death and human waste.

Blinking in the afternoon Seattle drizzle, the migrants filed out of the orange container but sank to the ground in exhaustion even before the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization officials could order them to the ground. They wore track pants and thin cotton shirts. One man was so thin his bones were outlined. Others had to be helped into ambulances. Medical personnel lowered one man into a wheelchair.

Longshoreman Craig Luttrell watched the parade of dazed Chinese migrants as they filed out of the container Monday afternoon at Seattle's Terminal 18 on Harbor Island. As a crane lowered the container into the dock yard, immigration officials and police with dogs approached the doors and swung them open. "It made me feel very sad," Mr. Luttrell said. "You think of all the things you have and then you see these people; everything they own is on their backs. They have nothing."

Mr. Luttrell said the men looked like caged animals; confused, disoriented and half-starved. "We just stood there and watched," he said. "I think everyone had their own thoughts. I mean, can you imagine being locked in a box for weeks?"

A Canada Customs official said yesterday that an X-ray-type machine that can scan container cargo to identify its contents -- including people -- is being tested and could soon be used at Vancouver's port.

Last week, Mr. Luttrell watched as 14 migrants rushed down the gangway of the Norasia Shamsha and scattered into the Seattle dockyard. He said they were well-dressed and healthy looking and were poised to make a run for it until longshoremen spotted them. At first, workers thought the migrants were crew until they learned the real crew was Puerto Rican.

Longshoremen leaned on their horns to alert U.S. Customs officials at the dock and the migrants scattered. However, immigration officials said they picked up all 14.

Mr. Luttrell said the container carrying those men was strewn with garbage, rancid blankets and boxes piled to the ceiling. Five 30-gallon drums were used as toilets and the smell was sickening, he said.

There is still little known about the dead migrants. It was initially reported that an elderly woman had died but officials said yesterday all three were men, reports of their ages varying between 20s and 40s.

"The identities have not been established," said investigator Dave Delgado at the King County medical examiner's office.

They could have been dead three to seven days.

U.S. Attorney-General Janet Reno yesterday condemned the smugglers.

"Anyone who traffics in human beings is the worst kind of criminal," she told reporters in Seattle. The Cape May, owned by the Japanese shipping company NYK, left Singapore on Dec. 19, made a stop in Taiwan and left Hong Kong for Seattle on Dec. 27.

"It looks as if they were put inside five days before [the container] was loaded on the ship," said INS spokeswoman Sharon Gavin.




Subscribe to The Globe and Mail

More National News
Plutonium flown over Canada
Surprise shipment via helicopter sparks anger from environmentalists and community leaders
By WALLACE IMMEN and COLIN FREEZE - Saturday, January 15, 2000

Tape appears to show York police beating man
By CAROLINE ALPHONSO - Saturday, January 15, 2000

PM likely to avoid testifying about APEC
Inquiry lawyer won't ask for subpoena
By JANE ARMSTRONG - Saturday, January 15, 2000

Cape Breton coal miners vote to end illegal strike
By KEVIN COX - Saturday, January 15, 2000

Pentagon develops pilotless spy plane
Prototype of Golden Hawk scheduled to fly high over Canada next month
By JEFF SALLOT - Saturday, January 15, 2000


7-Day Search
 
Tips | What Can I Search For?
 
Noteworthy
7 Days On The Street series
Canada obviously is prospering and yet it now has legions of people adrift on the street. Who are they? Do they have to live this way? Reporter John Stackhouse spent a week on the street to find out.

Just Desserts case
One of the longest and most complicated criminal trials in Canadian history.
The Great March West
Canada Day recreation of the mythic journey that helped define this country -- the North-West Mounted Police trek to pacify the West in 1874.

Writers
Gagnon

Lysiane Gagnon
· Inside Quebec


Simpson

Jeffrey Simpson
· Articles


Sullivan

Paul Sullivan
· The West



Discussion Forums
bulletAOL Time Warner
Will this merger change the Canadian media landscape? If so, who's next on the merger block?
bulletCanadian Broadcasting Chaos
Regulating rage is flaring between the CRTC and CBC. What do you think of the CRTC's conditions for licence renewal?
bulletY2K Expert
Jennifer McNeill, President of Calgary-based software solutions and service provider Cipher Systems Ltd., is available to answer your questions about the Y2K bug.
bulletThe Death of Hockey
Do you love the game but hate what the NHL is doing to it?
bulletAge Discrimination
Today's economy is booming, eh? How come I'm unemployed? It must be age discrimination.
bulletRRSPs
RRSP season is here. Where are you putting your money?

ChaptersGLOBE.com
Related Books
· Canadian Biographies
· Canadian Drama Books · Canadian History
· Canadian Politics & Government
· Canadian Travel Books

Help & Contact Us | Copyright © 2000 Globe Information Services | Back to the top of this page

Home  |  Business  |  National  |  International  |  Sports  |  Features  |  Arts  |  Forums  |  Subscribe