Thursday, January 13, 2000, 07:25
a.m. Pacific
Detention a long way from dreams of
freedom for stowaways
The men from China had fulfilled their dream to come to the United
States, traveling two weeks on rough seas in a dark, drafty, metal
container on a voyage that killed three of their companions and required
another four to be hospitalized.
Now, for 12 stowaways aboard the Cape May that docked on Harbor Island
on Monday, the first days here are being spent in an overflowing
medium-security federal-detention center near the Kingdome.
It's a place of little privacy. Cameras are on all the time. Physicals
are conducted with open doors. There are no doors on the bathroom stalls,
and several detainees sleep on plastic cots that don't fit them.
Reporters visited the detention center yesterday at the invitation of
the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).
Because of the continuing INS investigation, and because of the fear of
reprisals against the stowaways who likely owe tens of thousands of
dollars to those who arranged their passage, reporters were not permitted
to talk with the inmates, and photographers were asked to not take
pictures of their faces.
Those from the Cape May, in their 20s and 30s, looked tired, withdrawn
and thin, dressed in federally issued jumpsuits and flip-flops.
Some slept, even in the din of a cell where other detainees were being
held. Others looked out the window or at the ceiling. Some had books
stacked next to their pillows.
There are 177 beds in the facility, which is now holding 188 people,
according to William Paul, the facility administrator. The 19 additional
stowaways apprehended Tuesday aboard the Hanjin Yokohama, are being held
at a similar facility in Kent.
Asked to describe the stowaways held in Seattle, Paul said: "They're
very passive." He said they didn't seem traumatized from the journey.
"I've heard of no reports of psychological problems."
Ted Love, a physician's assistant who examined some of the men, said
some were bruised from the journey.
"They got pretty well botched up in that container."
The four men at Harborview Medical Center are in satisfactory
condition, according to a nursing supervisor.
Paul said those in detention are being interviewed by the INS and will
likely leave within two weeks. Some have asked to speak with lawyers,
which are not free to detainees with immigration issues.
INS spokeswoman Irene Mortensen said it appeared most if not all of
those on the Cape May - as well as the other stowaways recently
apprehended in Seattle - will apply for political asylum.
While many will lose their claims, that does not mean they will be
deported to China.
INS officials say many of those apprehended last year aboard container
ships disappeared from its tracking.
While the INS knows who these people are, and has records of where they
said they were staying while their applications were evaluated, the agency
does not keep track of 75 percent of them, according to Don Mueller, an
INS spokesman in Washington, D.C.
INS officials say most head for New York City, where jobs await them to
pay off the steep passage fees.
"It's not a perfect world," Mueller said. "We lose a lot of them."
Copyright © 2000 The
Seattle Times Company
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