By Allan Dowd
VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Canada staged one of the largest mass
deportations in the country's recent history Wednesday,
returning 90 ``boat people'' who entered the country illegally
from China last summer.
The deportees, including four children, were detained in
Canada after being denied refugee status and were returned
under an agreement with Chinese authorities, Canadian
officials said.
``It is this kind of co-operation that shows our two
countries are concerned about human smuggling,'' said Murray
Wilkinson, an enforcement official with Citizenship and
Immigration Canada in Vancouver.
Wilkinson refused to say where in China the refugees were
being sent. They were loaded under heavy security on to a
chartered aircraft at a small airport in Abbotsford, British
Columbia, near Vancouver.
The 90 were among nearly 600 Chinese who were detained
after arriving illegally in ships on Canada's Pacific Coast
last summer. Wednesday's action brings to 113 the number of
boat people deported.
Canadian authorities are expecting more human smuggling
this summer but said Wednesday's action was not prompted by a
desire to make space available in detention centers where the
people are held pending refugee hearings.
The smuggling ships -- usually dilapidated, cramped fishing
vessels -- are believed to be operated by Asian criminal gangs
who charge people up to C$60,000 ($40,000) to sneak them into
North America.
Although the boats landed in Canada, it is believed most of
the illegal immigrants were eventually bound for the United
States where the gangs force them to work off the cost of
their journey in conditions bordering on slavery.
Canada and China agreed to crack down on the human
smugglers, known as ``snakeheads,'' during a visit to Beijing
last month by Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan.
Wednesday's deportation was denounced by the
Chinese-Canadian Association in Vancouver, which accused
immigration officials of using ``paramilitary'' tactics to
remove the boat people from detention facilities in the middle
of the night.
Officials had initially tried to keep the deportation
secret until the airplane was loaded, and cited security
concerns for not disclosing the destination in China.
Canada said it did not know what would happen to the boat
people when they were back in China, but said it had received
assurances from Chinese authorities the four children being
returned would not be detained.
