Tuesday, July 27

JANE ARMSTRONG and ROD MICKLEBURGH
British Columbia Bureau
Saturday, July 24, 1999

Vancouver -- They can pay up to $40,000 (U.S.) to board a plane or ship bound for "the Golden Mountain" in North America. But once here, the life of an illegal Chinese immigrant is difficult, dangerous and dogged by daily threats and fears of being caught.

Their destination of choice is New York, where as many as 500,000 illegal immigrants from Fujian province in southeast China -- the prime source of smuggled human cargo -- have been able to blend into the city's bustling Chinese community. There, they work in restaurants, garment factories and the construction industry for substandard wages in miserable conditions until their huge debt is paid off. More than a few women resort to prostitution.

Tales abound of illegals crammed into filthy living quarters and brutal treatment by gang enforcers if loan payments are slow.

"They are victims most of their life," said Sergeant Jim Fisher, an Asian crime specialist with the Vancouver police, currently on loan to the Canadian criminal intelligence service.

Now, Canada has had its first tangible taste of a trade in human beings that has gone on for years from the coves and rural villages of northern Fujian, where smuggling oneself somewhere is virtually a rite of passage.

The leaking and listing 55-metre boat impounded this week off the west coast of Vancouver Island with 123 illegal Chinese immigrants aboard could be a sign of things to come. As U.S. Coast Guard and immigration officials boost patrols and tighten the rules, the kingpins of human smuggling, known as snakeheads, are desperately seeking new routes into the U.S.

Decrepit boats with their cargo of illegal immigrants have been showing up in Australia, the U.S. Pacific island of Guam, and Mexico. Finally, this week, one was snared off Canada.

"It's not much of a surprise," said Greg Magee, a migration law enforcement officer with the U.S. Coast Guard. "These smugglers are very resourceful, very flexible."

Word may also be out that it is more difficult to send illegal immigrants packing from Canada, than from other countries.

"They [the snakeheads] know all about our system, how to talk to our immigration people and the police," said Derick Cheng, honorary chairman of the Vancouver-based Canadian Fujian Friendship Association. "Things I never knew, they know right away."

As if to underscore the point, Canadian immigration officials said yesterday that all passengers of the no-name ship interviewed so far want to claim refugee status.

Rob Johnston, enforcement manager for the department's Vancouver office, said they will urge adjudicators to continue to detain passengers at the Esquimalt naval base in Victoria until they provide more information.

But Vancouver immigration laywer Carolyn McCool, who intends to begin her own interviews with the illegal immigrants this weekend, said she expects some may be released as early as next week.

Yet few believe Canada is where the immigrants really want to stay, despite their refugee claims. Last year, more than two-thirds of the 602 refugee claims filed by Chinese citizens in Vancouver were abandoned before they even came to a hearing.

For most, once they get to North America, life is hard. In constant worry of being caught, they are a captive work force, often exploited. They are powerless to complain, because of pressure to pay off their transit debt to the snakeheads.

Nor is it much better if they decide to stay in Canada, said travel agent Hanson Lau, a prominent member of the Chinese-Canadian community. "It's not a good life like the American dream. It's not that exciting," Mr. Lau said.

Vancouver's Chinese community is split by the controversy.

Despite his Fujian background, Mr. Cheng of the Canadian Fujian Friendship Association wants the newcomers shipped back to China as quickly as possible. "If 123 people can come to these shores and all claim to be refugees, when there is no war in China, we are being treated as suckers. The government should draw a line," he said.

"Once they reach Canadian soil, they claim refugee status and we throw them a whole social system to help them out. We are all immigrants here, but they should do it by the law. Our community doesn't understand how they get through the system. They're not legitimate refugees. They just pull the wool over everyone's eyes."

But Mr. Lau was more sympathetic. "They went through hell and arrived on our doorstep. The problem isn't this one ship. It's the snakeheads. We need to stop this situation at the source. Chinese authorities should shoot a few of these snakeheads. End of story."

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