Wednesday, January 05, 2000 Stowaways land as anti-smuggling planning starts
Seattle-bound Chinese discovered when ship diverted to Vancouver
Ian Bailey and Mark Hume
National Post, with files from The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER - The discovery of 25 Chinese stowaways in a ship's container marks an escalation of illegal migration just as the armed forces, police and customs officials are preparing to develop a plan for dealing with human smuggling.
Jim Redmond, an Immigration spokesman, noted that 100 stowaways were found in Canadian ports last year, mostly on the east coast and usually in groups of one or two.
"But this is a larger number," Mr. Redmond said yesterday. "It's too soon to call this a trend, but we're certainly going to have to monitor the situation closely."
The RCMP, the military and the Customs Department, involved in dealing with the 600 Chinese migrants who came to the west coast last year in boats, will meeting on Jan. 20 to develop a strategy for dealing with new arrivals expected this year, said Mr. Redmond.
On Monday, the 25 Chinese stowaways were found living in "semi-trailer truck"-sized containers on the California Jupiter, a Seattle-bound ship making a stop in Vancouver.
The shipping agent, New Jersey-based NYK Line North America was fined $375,000 for the incident, the largest penalty ever handed out by Canada Immigration.
The ship was not allowed to leave port until the fine was paid. Calls to NYK were not returned.
Also Monday, Seattle officials found 12 Chinese men in a ship. A day earlier, 18 stowaways were found in a ship at Long Beach, Calif.
In Vancouver, the 25 men -- 21 adults and four juveniles -- were being held at a downtown pretrial centre being processed by Immigration officials. All were in good health despite spending at least 15 days locked in the depths of the ship.
Rob Johnson, an Immigration spokesman, expects most will claim refugee status. He said the "very well-attired" stowaways are from Fujian province in China, home of migrants on the four boats that arrived in B.C. last summer.
The ship was to head straight for Seattle, but was diverted to Vancouver because of a port backlog in the United States.
The men were found after Canadian agencies, including the RCMP, Canada Customs and Immigration, homed in on the container ship, acting on a tip from U.S. authorities, officials said.
An alert customs agent, crawling through the depths of the Jupiter, heard voices coming from one of hundreds of containers piled within the ship, RCMP Corporal Grant Learned said yesterday.
The ship left Hong Kong on Dec. 20. The RCMP has concluded the stowaways were headed for Seattle, where the cargo was to be offloaded.
"That would lead you to suggest that Canada was not the destination point for these people," said Cpl. Learned.
RCMP said the captain and crew were co-operative and apparently had no idea the stowaways were aboard. Still, police are conducting an "international investigation" to find the smugglers, said Cpl. Learned.
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