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  WebPosted May 10 2000 8:01 PM EDT




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Massive deportation

VANCOUVER - Ninety Chinese migrants are being sent home. Two busloads of the boat people were driven from their jail cells in Prince George to the Abbotsford Airport overnight.

'The sooner we get people home the better'
A charter jet is now flying them back to China. The 75 men, 11 women and four childrens were among 600 people who arrived on the B.C. coast last summer in four rusty boats.

Until now, just 13 migrants had been returned to China.

In Ottawa, the Minister of Immigration says another 350 Chinese people will be deported in the coming days. Elinor Caplan travelled to China last month, to get Beijing's cooperation with travel documentation. Caplan says the deportations send a clear message.

But Canadian Alliance MP John Reynolds is critical of Caplan, saying the Canadian process has taken too long. He notes the U.S. deals with illegal immigrants within two weeks.

"The impact is that people in China still think this is a good place to come," he says. "The sooner we get people home the better we're all going to be in Canada."

Reynolds says it's ridiculous that it's taken Canada almost a year to send the illegal migrants back to China.

M O R E : REGIONAL

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