10 Chinese found in back of van near U.S. border

CHATHAM, Ont. - Ten Chinese teenagers in Canada illegally were in custody yesterday after police in southwestern Ontario found them in the back of a van headed for the United States.

A mother and son from the Walpole Island First Nation were charged with smuggling after the girls, ranging in age from 14 to 18, were found during a routine traffic stop outside the town of Wallaceburg.

``It's a very unusual case,'' RCMP Corporal Earle Bailey said yesterday.

``In most instances, people being smuggled are members of one family. But in this case there are 10 young girls.''

The incident comes just days after 25 Chinese migrants were discovered hidden in cargo containers in Vancouver. The ship they were on had been turned away from Seattle because the dock there was full.

On Wednesday, provincial police acting on an unrelated complaint about a similar vehicle, stopped the van about 15 kilometres from the American border. Police say it had just left a motel in Chatham.

The illegal migrants - all in ``good condition'' - were found in the back.

``We have no idea where they came from in Canada before arriving at the motel in Chatham,'' Bailey said from Windsor.

None of the teens, believed to have been in the country for less than a week, had immigration status in Canada.

However, they are all from China's Fujian province - the same area from which almost 600 Chinese migrants arrived last year in four decrepit cargo ships off the B.C. coast seeking refugee status in Canada.

The latest group was headed to a house on Walpole Island in the St. Clair River, which flows between Ontario and Michigan, authorities said.

The plan was likely to smuggle the teens across the St. Clair into the U.S., police said.

Four of them - aged 18 - were being held under the Immigration Act in Windsor, while those under 18 - one 14, one 15, and four 17 - were sent to youth facilities, including one in Goderich.

They were being interviewed through a interpreter by police and immigration officials.

Robin Soney, 28, and his mother Jacqueline Soney, 48, both of Walpole Island, have been charged under the Immigration Act with aiding and abetting smuggling.

Residents and leaders of the small Walpole Island First Nation were reluctant to say much about the pair, described as quiet.

``I won't say it's a surprise because we've heard of it before,'' said Chief Joseph Gilbert when told of the charges.

``A few years ago there was some kind of incident,'' he said without elaborating.

U.S. agents intercepted 148 illegal immigrants headed from Canada into southeastern Michigan in the last three months of 1999.

U.S. border patrol agents arrested two men identified as the group's contacts.

The six teens, who ranged in age from 14 to 17, and one adult were turned over to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Chang Ming Lin of Toronto, a naturalized Canadian citizen from China, and Khiu Nhuc of Buffalo, a naturalized American from Vietnam, were arraigned on smuggling charges this week.