More than two dozen teenage Chinese migrants
have disappeared from group homes after arriving illegally in B.C.
last summer. Authorities can do nothing to track them down or
prevent others from leaving.
 Locked behind bars
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Young migrants under 19 years old are placed in group homes and
taken care of by B.C.'s Children and Families Ministry. The migrants
get rules such as a nightly curfew but the ministry has no power to
keep them in the group home.
The immigration department says if migrants are not detained at
the time they enter Canada then they can't be detained later unless
something has changed in their case.
Over the weekend, seven adult migrants escaped from a Prince
George detention centre. RCMP used a helicopter and tracking dogs to
recapture them. But officials say there's little they can do to find
young migrants who have vanished.
Almost all
the 30 teens who have left are between 16 and 18 years old.
Officials believe most have gone to the U.S.
Another 30 migrants turned 19 since they arrived and now live on
their own. Most of them have stayed in touch with the Children and
Families ministry.
A total of 78 young migrants are still in group homes in
Vancouver and Victoria.
The children are part of about 600 Chinese citizens who paid
thousands of dollars and risked their lives to sneak into Canada on
rickety boats last summer. They were detained by immigration
officials as soon as they reached the B.C. coast.
The Immigration and Refugee Board has already rejected the
refugee claims of about 400 migrants. Many have been sent back to
China. Others face deportation.
