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Tuesday, July 27, 1999

RCMP increases security around migrants after finding weapons
Officials to rule if Chinese are set free during claim process

Jim Beatty and Chad Skelton
The Vancouver Sun

VICTORIA - Police have tightened the security around 123 Chinese refugee claimants currently detained in Victoria after RCMP officers discovered several concealed items they fear could have been used as makeshift weapons.

The increased security will mean the illegal migrants will be handcuffed when they attend their first immigration hearing today -- a hearing to determine whether they can be released pending their refugee claims.

Police revealed the discovery of the weapons yesterday, a day after an extensive search of the military compound where the Chinese refugee claimants have been held since their discovery last week aboard a dilapidated boat off the western coast of Vancouver Island.

Immigration officials say they were part of a human smuggling operation that brings Chinese to North America.

The compound search was sparked after an RCMP officer noticed a migrant attempting to conceal a tinfoil dinner plate. The Sunday night search revealed sharpened pens, combs, safety pins and several solid brass fittings removed from the floor of the gymnasium where the migrants are being detained at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt.

"We found hidden or concealed items that had the potential to be used as weapons," RCMP Const. Tracey Rook said yesterday.

"One individual had taken a tinfoil dinner plate, had torn a piece off, folded it a number of times and given it a very sharp edge so that it could be used as a weapon."

None of the objects had been used against Canadian officials in a threatening way.

Nineteen of the migrants have been identified as being involved in the organization of the trans-Pacific shipment and have been segregated from the rest. Const. Rook said the search and discovery of the weapons was not specific to one group or another.

Today, the Immigration Department will establish two quasi-judicial courtrooms at the military base. Four adjudicators will hear the cases of the 123 migrants, all of whom are seeking refugee status in Canada.

The detention review hearing is primarily to determine whether the migrants can be released pending their refugee claims or whether they should continue to be detained.

Immigration officials say they will argue to keep the migrants in detention.

"We are still not satisfied as to their identity," said Lorna Tessier, an immigration spokeswoman. She said some of the migrants continue to be evasive when asked direct questions. Only a few were carrying documents that could prove their identity.

A team of lawyers who are being paid by government legal aid to represent the migrants say they will argue for their immediate release.

Peter Golden, a Victoria immigration lawyer who is co-ordinating the legal team, said six lawyers, each with an interpreter, will represent the entire group. None of the migrants speak English.

The lawyers began yesterday morning by speaking to the migrants in groups, explaining to them the legal process they will face today. Mr. Golden said the lawyers were then to meet with the migrants individually to receive instructions about what arguments to make in front of the detention review hearings today.

Mr. Golden said it was difficult to guess how the migrants would fare at the detention reviews.

"This is not a typical situation," he said.

The refugee claimants are all from the Chinese province of Fujian. They have told immigration officials they left home in mid-June and travelled in the cargo hold of the fishing boat for about 40 days before being detained by Canadian officials.

Some said they paid as much as $39,000 (US) for passage to Canada.

The ship, which had no flag, no name and was listing badly, was spotted in Nootka Sound early last week by a Fisheries Department aircraft and was later boarded by the Canadian Coast Guard.

On board were 123 Chinese nationals -- including 17 women and 13 teenage boys -- who were living in the cargo hold of the filthy boat.

 
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