Friday, Oct 15

ESTANISLAO OZIEWICZ
The Globe and Mail
Friday, October 15, 1999

Immigration officials are coping with a new tide of smuggled Chinese migrants -- this time at Toronto's Pearson International Airport -- some of whom have tested positive for tuberculosis.

Twenty-two migrants, who arrived aboard a Malev Hungarian Airlines flight a week ago without any documents, have presented a number of serious, additional headaches for Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan:

Six of the 22 have tested positive for tuberculosis and it is still not known whether they are infectious. They have been segregated in detention and follow-up chest X-rays are now being done.

Health concerns have prompted some immigration examining officers to refuse to interview them. "It's simple, we're worried about our health," said one immigration officer. "And we're worried about the Canadian public."

Some of the migrants refused to allow themselves to be photographed or fingerprinted. "The refusal to be fingerprinted is something new," said the officer. "The question is why?"

The Celebrity Inn, the airport-area immigration detention facility, was full when the migrants arrived. Officials at the provincially run Toronto West Detention Centre initially refused to accept them, but relented after being given assurances they would be tested for TB.

Later, to ease overcrowding at the Celebrity, immigration officials moved 18 other detainees to Laval, Que. Now, all 22 Chinese migrants are being held at the Celebrity.

Normally, questionable migrants and refugee claimants are released after a preliminary interview and a promise to appear for further processing. But, given the experience on the West Coast this summer when 600 Chinese migrants arrived aboard smuggling ships, officials decided that the 22 arrivals at Pearson should be detained until a detention review, which must be held within seven days.

"There is a concern about these persons' identities," said Giovanna Gatti, an Immigration Department spokeswoman.

Immigration officials believe that the group's arrival is part of an organized smuggling operation. The RCMP has been asked to investigate.

Ms. Gatti said 22 undocumented migrants aboard one flight is "considered an unusually large number."

She said the the migrants' initial detention review would be held today.