Upon arrival, stowaways aren't tracked by INS

by Susan Gilmore
Seattle Times staff reporter

They number nearly 100, the Chinese nationals caught trying to be smuggled into Seattle-area ports inside canvas-topped containers the past two years.

Those who arrived in the past two weeks remain in detention here. But local Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) officials, who apprehended the stowaways, don't know where the rest of them are or how many have been deported to China.

"We don't track the people," said Irene Mortensen, spokeswoman for the local INS office. "We don't know where they are."

And even though the ships that carried the immigrants could, by law, face fines of $2,000 for each stowaway and be forced to pay for their deportation, officials say those penalties have never been levied.

That contrasts starkly with the actions of the Canadian government, which slapped a $375,000 fine on the container ship California Jupiter - $15,000 per person for the 25 Chinese stowaways found on board last week - before it was allowed to leave Vancouver, B.C., for Seattle.

Mortensen said she could not explain why fines have not been levied in this country.

The INS said it doesn't believe the shipping companies, which regularly send huge container vessels into Puget Sound ports, are directly involved in the smuggling. Instead, officials say the companies are being exploited by Chinese organized-crime groups that control the people-smuggling business.

But Bob Coleman, acting district director of the local INS office, says the agency will begin bringing economic pressure on the owners of the ships.

Not only does the law allow the INS to fine shipping companies, those companies could also be forced to pay for detaining the stowaways and, if needed, to send them back to China. INS officials say it costs as much as $90 a day to house the Chinese stowaways at the federal detention center in Seattle.

"This is the law of the sea," said Coleman. "The master of the vessel is responsible for everything that happens. The owners of the vessel need to do more. We can't allow this type of crime to be committed and interfere with legitimate commerce and trade."

He said the INS also has a ship-seizure process, "and you may see us do that."

In the past 16 days, 136 Chinese on eight ships that sailed from Hong Kong have been seized at ports in California, Washington and Vancouver, B.C.

Four of the ships were intercepted in Seattle - the latest was the Hanjin Yokohama, on which 19 stowaways were found yesterday morning at Pier 46 - following tips to the INS. Officials won't elaborate on how they got the information.

The smuggling wave took a chilling turn Monday when three people aboard the ship Cape May were found dead inside one of the containers. "These people were buried alive," Coleman said. "Smugglers will kill people."

Jerry Webster, chief investigator for the King County Medical Examiner's Office, said preliminary tests on the three bodies revealed no evidence of physical injuries or infectious diseases.

It could be up to four weeks until further tests determine the time and cause of death, or even the ages of the three, Webster said.

Four of the 15 survivors from the Cape May still being treated at Harborview Medical Center were listed in satisfactory condition this morning, according to hospital officials. None is suffering from ailments other than the effects of malnutrition and dehydration.

Relatively new problem here

Smuggling humans in cargo containers is fairly new on the West Coast. But the illegal exporting of Chinese around the globe has been going on for hundreds of years, said Ken Elwood, deputy executive associate commissioner for field-operations enforcement with the INS and a Chinese scholar.

He said the United Nations estimates about 1 million people a year leave China - legally and illegally - for other countries.

Elwood said about 5,000 Chinese nationals attempt to enter the U.S. illegally each year, and many of them succeed. Last year, 1,000 were intercepted in the Pacific Ocean and 1,000 were detained in other ways, such as at airports and crossing U.S. borders, he said.

"We may be getting half of them, but it's hard to tell how many we're not catching," Elwood said.

The smuggling game is big business.

He said the United Nations estimates organized crime makes $1 billion a year on smuggling operations. Some of those who arrived aboard the container ships reportedly paid as much as $50,000 for passage, an amount Elwood said would probably take at least five years to repay through the underground, sweatshop-type work many of the refugees get in New York City.

"We want to get the message out," he said. "This is not a piece of cake. They're not getting on any Carnival Cruise. This is life or death."

The first local container-ship smuggling operation was discovered in Tacoma in April 1998. In the past nine months, at least 97 stowaways on container ships were caught and detained in Seattle and Tacoma.

INS officials say most of those detained in the earlier operations are out on bond and probably still seeking political asylum, a process that could take a year or more.

It's unlikely any have been returned to China, say INS officials. But the agency couldn't say where they are.

Shipping-company officials have said they are also frustrated by the surge of human cargo.

Hong Kong-based shippers have agreed to the inspection of all soft-top containers and use of heat detectors to find illegal immigrants hiding in containers, according to the Hong Kong Standard newspaper. New port clients, the paper reported, will face extra scrutiny.

INS and U.S. Customs officials say authorities inspect less than 5 percent of containers. And while the shipping companies have the right to unseal containers, that's rarely done.

Mike Moneck of the Federal Maritime Commission said the companies usually accept the shipper's loads without question. The shipper provides a contents list, and the containers are loaded on vessels. Usually, he said, the carrier affixes the seal.

Unsealing a container "is not something done routinely," he said.

When companies do unseal containers, it's usually to check on the stability of the loads inside, or to see whether the contents have been misidentified to get a cheaper shipping rate, such as calling expensive computer equipment scrap metal. If that is discovered, the shipper can be assessed a penalty, Moneck said.

But finding people on board in containers is nearly impossible, shipping company officials said.

Jim Stewart, marketing manager with Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), said there may be 3,000 containers on a ship and only 15 crew members.

"We do not routinely inspect what's inside the containers. It's physically impossible, unless we get a tip," he said. "These are poor, desperate people, and the carriers are unwitting victims. It's a terribly inhumane situation."

Michael Milne, assistant director of operations with U.S. Customs in Seattle, said his agency targets most of the containers it decides to inspect by looking at electronically submitted manifests.

Last year, the Port of Seattle handled the equivalent of 1.5 million 20-foot containers aboard 1,000 vessels, said Imbert Mathee, a port spokesman. He said 93 percent of the port's inbound cargo comes from Asia, and most of it is destined for other parts of the country.

Susan Gilmore's phone-message number is 206-464-2054.

Copyright © 2000 The Seattle Times Company

Copyright © 2000 The Seattle Times Company