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Friday May 19 8:28 AM ET
PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. (CP) - A Chinese migrant who escaped from a mothballed provincial jail Thursday was captured about eight hours after he climbed over a fence and bolted for freedom.
RCMP found the 26-year-old man when they were called to a break and enter complaint at 11:15 p.m. The man was arrested without incident, police said. He was reported to be frightened, but otherwise all right.
The escape occurred about mid-afternoon.
B.C. Corrections spokesman Sheldon Greene said the man apparently climbed over a high fence surrounding an outside yard.
The fence, which looks like an inverted J, was not topped with barbed wire, he said.
RCMP said earlier the man had been spotted in a wooded area outside the jail but had eluded them.
Const. Mike Herchuk said that RCMP and prison officials tracked the man for four hours through the bush using dogs.
The man was spotted several times about 150 metres away but the thick woods allowed him to escape, Herchuk said.
Almost 600 Chinese migrants arrived off the West Coast last summer aboard four decrepit cargo ships.
Almost all made refugee claims and have remained in detention since their arrival.
Most claims have been rejected and 113 migrants have been deported.
The Prince George facility had been holding 239 migrants, but 69 of them were taken by bus to the Vancouver area, where a total of 90 migrants were put on a plane and sent back to China on May 10.
(Prince George Citizen) © The Canadian Press, 2000
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