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Monday June 5 9:50 PM ET
VANCOUVER (CP) - British Columbia's attorney general has ordered an independent investigation into how seven Chinese migrants managed to bolt from a detention facility. "I thought it appropriate . . . to review the circumstances that occurred here so we can both find out what happened and prevent it from happening," Andrew Petter said Monday.
The Investigations Inspections and Standards office is to make recommendations to Petter's ministry.
The office is an independent arm of the ministry and is expected to issue its report in about two weeks. Corrections B.C. is also conducting its own investigation.
Police captured the last of the migrants Monday after he and six others escaped Saturday into the dense and dangerous bush near the Prince George Regional Correctional Centre about 500 kilometres north of Vancouver.
RCMP Const. Mike Herchuk said the last man had managed to find his way out of the woods and gestured for help at a rural residence about eight kilometres from the detention centre.
But when the homeowner realized the man at her door was the subject of a manhunt, she closed the door gingerly to call police, Herchuk said.
The migrant then hitched a ride in a passing car, he said.
"The motorist thought he was a mill worker whose vehicle had broken down because he was wearing heavy workboots," he said.
"The homeowner immediately contacted RCMP and provided a description," said Herchuk. "We responded with our air services helicopter and vehicles and within a short period of time we had in fact located the last of the escapees."
He said the migrant was hungry and cold but otherwise healthy.
Police captured six escapees Sunday after the group fled from the kitchen of the detention centre.
Sheldon Green, spokesman for the B.C. Corrections Branch, said security guards pursued the men but lost them when they fled into dense bush.
The detention centre has beefed up security, including rooftop patrols.
Kitchen duties have been contracted out and recreational activities that provide access to outside areas are under review, Green said.
"We obviously want to make sure that given the fact that we are now looking at that population as presenting a risk for escape, we want to make sure that all of our programs and activities are reviewed for their security issues," he said.
The escapees are among 168 people -including 24 women - being detained since their illegal arrival last summer on a decrepit ship off British Columbia's coast.
The migrants, along with 101 others at two Vancouver-area facilities, are awaiting immigration hearings to determine if their refugee claims are accepted.
Herchuk said police resumed the search for the last escapee at about 7:30 a.m. Monday using a helicopter equipped with an infrared camera and a ground crew with tracking dogs.
He said the six captured earlier appeared relieved "that they may be headed back to three hots and a cot."
The men on the loose and the Mounties pursuing them faced rugged terrain and dangerous wildlife including bears, moose and coyotes.
The escapees were not the first to flee detention.
On May 18, a migrant was captured within eight hours of escaping from the same facility. Eight days earlier, 90 others from the facility were deported back to China.
Rob Johnston, an Immigration Canada official in Vancouver, said the migrants are being detained while the refugee process continues because they're considered a flight risk.
"It's unfortunate when people have to be detained for long periods of time," Johnston said. "We now have 95 warrants outstanding for individuals who have been released."
Those warrants are for migrants from the first of the four boats that arrived in British Columbia between last July and September.
It's believed many, including minors, have crossed the border into U.S. cities such as New York where they work in sweatshops to pay smugglers thousands of dollars for their voyage to Canada.
A total of 600 illegal migrants made their arduous journey to B.C. from the Chinese province of Fujian last summer.
RCMP officers have warned that more will likely arrive this summer. © The Canadian Press, 2000
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