VANCOUVER (CP) - Police captured one Chinese migrant Sunday after he and six others escaped from a detention centre in northern British Columbia a day earlier, an RCMP spokesman said. "He was in good condition but he was cold and he was scared," said Const. Mike Herchuk of Prince George RCMP.

Herchuk said the Mounties received a tip about the 31-year-old man.

The man and the six still on the loose are among 168 people - including 24 women - being detained at the Prince George Regional Correctional Centre since their illegal arrival last summer in a decrepit ship off the B.C. coast.

They are awaiting immigration hearings to determine if their refugee claims will be accepted.

The captured man appeared to be sleeping when police approached him in the woods a half kilometre from the detention facility, Herchuk said.

The man told police he doesn't know the others' whereabouts.

"He says they hit the tree line and between tripping and stumbling and trying to climb the hills, he got separated."

The escapee was on the loose for about 22 hours.

Police are continuing to search for the other six men using a helicopter equipped with an infrared camera and a ground crew with tracking dogs, Herchuk said.

The escapees - like the pursuring Mounties - face rugged terrain and dangerous wildlife including bears, moose and coyotes.

"We had one of our dog handlers last night who stumbled into a sow and her cubs, so it was testy there for a minute," Herchuk said.

"When the guys came back (Saturday) night from the search they were caked in mud from the chest down from running around and on top of that, the bugs are bad."

The escapees would also have had to deal with overnight temperatures that dipped to about 6 C, Herchuk said.

The seven Chinese migrants bolted for freedom while working in the kitchen of the detention centre, said Sheldon Green, a spokesman for the B.C. Corrections Branch.

Green said kitchen duties have now been contracted out and extra security officers have been added to patrol the grounds.

Officials were to begin an investigation Monday into the escape, he said.

On May 18, a migrant was captured within eight hours of fleeing the same facility, from which 90 migrants were deported back to China on May 10.

Some 356 Chinese migrants are currently being detained in three centres in the province.

About 600 Chinese men, women and children arrived on B.C. shores aboard four rusty boats between July and September last year.

That number includes nine crew, who face five charges each including smuggling, improperly disembarking passengers at sea and criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

Victor Wong, a spokesman for the Vancouver Association of Chinese Canadians, said the most recent escapes indicate that detaining the migrants is the wrong policy.

One option would be to release the migrants to people in the Chinese community, Wong said.

"They have been in detention for over 10 months now."

Being jailed has taken a heavy mental toll on some migrants, including three who have attempted suicide at the Prince George facility, he said.

"People have had to be locked down or placed in segregation or isolation based on their behaviour in the prison and the mental health pressures they're under."

Wong said it's unfair of the federal government to detain the migrants because that's not how thousands of refugee claimants at airports and borders across the country are treated.

"We don't want to apply detention to anybody else," Wong said. "We've seen the tremendous impact it has had on these people."

Detaining refugees has cost the B.C. government millions of dollars. In March, the figure was estimated to be $20 million.

The RCMP said last month they are making plans for the arrival of more migrants this summer.

© The Canadian Press, 2000