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.
