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Monday June 12 7:10 PM ET
VANCOUVER (CP) - Dozens of Chinese migrants smashed windows and set fires Monday at the detention facility where they've been held since arriving illegally in Canada last summer.
Sheldon Green, a B.C. Corrections spokesman, said 49 migrants housed in three dormitories at the Alouette River Correctional Centre in Maple Ridge began to riot around 8 a.m.
"We have sort of an ongoing series of disturbances there," Green said. "(Migrants) began to smash windows and break toilets and light small fires.
"They are in that unit refusing to come out."
Green said negotiations face-to-face and by telephone began Monday afternoon.
Of the 82 migrants being housed at the Maple Ridge facility east of Vancouver, 49 are believed to be participating in the riot. They have expressed few specific concerns that they want resolved, Green said.
He said the riot seemed mainly due to the repatriation of other Chinese migrants who were among the 600 that arrived last summer aboard four decrepit cargo ships.
"Starting with the repatriation of the 90 that were removed from Canada by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (in May), we certainly noticed a deterioration in the overall conduct of these people - less co-operative, less willing to follow instructions," Green said.
"Over the last couple of weeks. . . that's escalated."
"We suspect part of their concern, probably the very real part of their concern, is that they all recognize, too, that. . . after spending 10 months plus in jail in B.C. they will soon be returned to China."
Additional guards were brought into Alouette River from the nearby Fraser Correctional Centre, including B.C. Corrections' tactical response team.
Green said guards were removed from the housing unit after the riot began.
There were no injuries.
"We have identified there are some ringleaders pushing this along and we are attempting to work that through."
Green said there will be a full investigation to find out how the riot began. © The Canadian Press, 2000
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