Wednesday, January 12, 2000
Three stowaways die in container
Cargo check: an SAR Customs officer enters the cargo hold of the Xiang Ji at Kwai Chung Container Terminal for a routine inspection. Picture by Oliver Tsang
GLENN SCHLOSS
Port security in Hong Kong was questioned yesterday after three mainland stowaways died and 15 others were found starving and dehydrated in a cargo container they sneaked into to get to the United States.
An elderly woman and two men died hidden inside a stinking, canvas-covered container that was loaded on to the freighter Cape May in the SAR.
The illegal immigrants endured a 15-day voyage to Seattle, where they were discovered.
Principal Assistant Secretary for Security So Kam-sing said: "I hope this latest case will send an alarm to those on the mainland contemplating illegal emigration overseas.
"They should realise that they will not only fall prey to alien smugglers financially but will also be risking their own lives."
The ship's owner, the Japanese NYK Line, said illegal immigrants were coming to the SAR hidden inside containers transported from southern China, or were crossing the border independently and then climbing into the containers.
Shippers, terminal operators and Customs officers needed to improve their checks at ports as well as the mainland border, NYK Line Hong Kong deputy general manager Keizo Chihara said.
Customs checks on containers leaving Yantian, near Shenzhen, from where the ship departed before docking at Modern Terminals at Kwai Chung, were stricter than in Hong Kong, he said.
Mr Chihara described the deaths aboard the Cape May, which left Hong Kong on December 27, as "very regrettable".
Fifteen men who survived, who are in their 20s and 30s and suffering from malnutrition and dehydration, told hospital staff of the miserable conditions inside the 12-metre by three-metre box which was stacked under four other containers.
Harborview medical centre spokesman Larry Zalin said in Seattle: "They went three weeks with inadequate food and water, and during the latter part of the journey there were three dead in the same container."
There was no information available about the cause of the deaths. Immigration officials said other stowaways had said the three had been dead between three and seven days.
"This reminds us once again of the horrors of this trade in human beings," US Consul-General Michael Klosson said.
US Immigration and Naturalisation district director Bob Coleman said: "Until now, the prices migrants have paid for illegal passage to the United States have been high in terms of dollars, but in a situation like this, where lives are lost, the cost is unfathomable."
US authorities checked the ship after receiving a tip-off that stowaways were on board.
An attempt by the organisers to avoid detection might have cost the smuggled passengers their lives.
Mr Chihara speculated ringleaders had loaded the container on the Cape May after learning shipping companies were inspecting canvas-covered boxes being put aboard ships with faster steaming times to the US west coast.
Reports from Seattle said American immigration officials had identified the shipper of the container as the Yuk Yat Trading Company.
But Mr Chihara said it was a bogus company.
"They contacted us by telephone. Our sales director tried to visit their office but they declined our proposal. So it is a fake company run by snakeheads."
A group of 25 illegal immigrants were found aboard another NYK ship, the California Jupiter, in Vancouver last week.
A wave of 117 illegal immigrants has been found heading to the United States via Seattle in the past three weeks.
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