CBC.CA News}
cbcca  home shop · help · contact · search   
Email News Digest | Audio | Video | CBC Radio Newscast | CBC Newsworld Newscast    
CBC Front Page
News
Indepth »
Viewpoint »
Programs »
Live »
Zone française »
Business
Sports
Weather
Entertainment
Kids
Consumers
Local Sites
Interactive
Message Boards
Program Websites
On-Air Guide
Inside CBC
Everest2000
Concerts

Search News:


CBC Corporate

Radio-Canada

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2000 CBC
All Rights Reserved

Migrants riot at B.C. jail
WebPosted Tue Jun 13 10:08:43 2000 ET

VANCOUVER - Dozens of Chinese migrants are being transferred to two maximum-security jails after a disturbance at a B.C. detention centre, where they've been held since being caught trying to sneak into Canada last year.

Corrections officers say 49 migrants smashed windows and set a small fire inside the Alouette River Correctional Centre in Maple Ridge Monday.

Extra police arrive

Guards sealed off one section of the jail as the protest became more vilolent, and extra staff were brought in.

Officers say it ended Monday night after the migrants talked to Victor Wong, an advocate with the Vancouver Association of Chinese Canadians.

There were no reports of serious injuries. Total damage has not been estimated.

The migrants are demanding an outside party hear their grievances — in particular, the amount of time they've been in custody awaiting immigration hearings.

Eighty-two illegal migrants are being kept at the medium-security facility, east of Vancouver.

They are part of the roughly 600 Chinese citizens who arrived in Canada on four cramped, squalid cargo ships last summer. Some of them paid smugglers a life time's worth of savings to make the dangerous voyage.

This is not the first protest by the illegal migrants. Last fall, dozens of them went on a hunger strike at the same detention centre. Several others have tried escaping from other jails.

So far, about 400 illegal migrants have had their claims for refugee status rejected by federal officials. Just over 100 of those have been returned to China.

About 100 other migrants have disappeared. Canadian officials have issued warrants for their arrest, but it's believed many of them have already slipped over the border into the United States — their original destination when they began their journey overseas.


Newsworld
N e w s   S e a r c h Email Story | Print Story
KEYWORDS:    FROM:   TO: 

A u d i o

H e a d l i n e s : C a n a d a