Wednesday, January 12, 2000 Customs testing container scanner in war on smuggling
Gamma-ray technology: Death of migrants points to need
Mark Hume
National Post, with files from Reuters, The Canadian Press and The Vancouver Sun
VANCOUVER - A machine that can scan container cargo to identify its contents -- including people -- is being tested and could soon be in use at Vancouver's port, says a Canada Customs official.
Inspectors would use the gamma-ray technology, similar to an X-ray machine, to check for contraband and, more importantly, illegal migrants smuggled into Canada inside containers, said Mike McWhinney, director of Canada Customs in Vancouver.
The need for this kind of technology was heightened following the discovery of three dead Chinese migrants, who had stowed away in a ship anchored in Seattle this week. Three container ships that brought Chinese migrants to North America in the past week had connections with "feeder" ships carrying containers out of China's Fujian province, the home of most smuggled migrants.
A review of shipping schedules shows that four more ships that could be carrying containers from Fujian are expected to arrive in Vancouver in the next two weeks, including a vessel due to arrive this Saturday.
The Procyon, owned by the Japan-based NYK Line, left Hong Kong on Dec. 28 and loaded containers from a feeder ship that left the Fujian city of Xiamen on Dec. 23. "We're aware ... the ships are coming in in a number of weeks," said Mr. McWhinney. "The shipping routes are definitely part of the equation for tracking. It puts them into the higher risk category, in terms of which ones we're going to look at."
Mr. McWhinney said Customs is also paying more attention to canvas-topped containers.
Members of the Chinese Canadian community are calling on the government to take decisive action, in light of the fatalities, over the problem of illegal migrants being smuggled to Canada on ships. "It's a very dangerous mode of transportation. We need to deploy all our resources to stop this before another tragedy happens," said Victor Wong, executive director of the Vancouver Association of Chinese Canadians.
U.S. authorities this week found three dead Chinese migrants along with 15 others hiding in a container deep in the hold of a freighter bound for Vancouver. The ship, Cape May, stopped in Seattle en route after leaving Singapore on Dec 19. A second container, housing 19 illegal Chinese migrants, was found in another ship, the Hanjin Yokohama, which docked in Seattle yesterday. They were cold, but in good physical condition.
Mr. Wong said Canadian and U.S. authorities should work together to catch those responsible for the human smuggling. Thousands of illegal migrants are thought to have been brought by ship to the West Coast in the past few years.
"Somebody must have been waiting to take control of that container here, and somebody must have booked it on the freighter," said Mr. Wong. "Those are the people the government should be concentrating on."
In the past few weeks, five ships in the U.S. and one in Vancouver have been found carrying Chinese stowaways in containers. This follows the mass arrival of 600 illegal migrants on junk freighters off the British Columbia coast last summer. Last week, 25 people were found in a container aboard the California Jupiter when it docked in Vancouver.
In Hong Kong yesterday, officials announced measures to prevent the territory being used for trafficking in illegal Chinese immigrants.
Newspapers have reported that the ships chosen for two of the recent smuggling attempts belonged to the Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), the family business of the Hong Kong leader, Tung Chee-hwa. OOCL said last week that it was getting equipment to identify any people inside containers being received for loading.
Ronald Au, Hong Kong Customs senior superintendent, told a news conference yesterday that three recent attempts to smuggle migrants were foiled due to tip-offs from Hong Kong.
He said Customs would require shipping companies to submit their "soft-top" containers to inspection before export.
"Shipping companies and container terminal operators will try to strengthen the detection of illegal immigrants inside their containers by means by modern technology, namely CO2 [carbon dioxide] detectors," Mr. Au said.
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Seattle, said the three found dead on Monday may have succumbed to exposure: "These people were effectively entombed."
"Unfortunately, our worst fears have come to pass," she said.
"We've been trying to warn people all along about the very, very real and present danger in undertaking a voyage of this kind."
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