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September 11, 1999 Canada considers sending police to China in effort to stop migrantsVANCOUVER (CP) -- As the number of Chinese migrants apprehended in B.C. waters this summer reached 596 with the arrival of a fourth boat, Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy said Canadian authorities may be sent to China's Fujian province to try to stop the flow.Speaking from New Zealand, where he's attending meetings leading up to the APEC summit, Axworthy said a memorandum of understanding signed by China and Canada last spring on jointly fighting criminal activity paves the way for Canadian police to monitor people-smuggling activities in China. "In order to provide some kind of interdiction of (the boats), we have to have a better knowledge of who is doing it and how we can anticipate or interdict people before it happens," he said Friday. The RCMP has been able to obtain very little information from the migrants about the smugglers who brought them to Canada. "There's been some reluctance from the migrants," RCMP Const. Tracey Rook told a news conference Friday. "And that's been . . . consistent with all of the boats." The 146 Chinese migrants -- 132 adults and 14 juveniles -- whose boat was apprehended Friday about 18 nautical miles (30 kilometres) off Vancouver Island are now in a gymnasium at Victoria's CFB Esquimalt. "They're lying in their cots, trying to recuperate," said base public affairs officer Lieut. Nathalie Garcia. The latest boat intercepted is now believed to be the sixth to arrive in B.C. waters this summer. Two so-called ghost ships sank after arriving undetected and unloading an undetermined number of passengers, Immigration spokesman George Varnai. Since July, three other ships from China's coastal Fujian province have been detected and intercepted on the West Coast. The three ships carried a total of 444 people, including an eight-year-old girl. Immigration spokeswoman Lois Reimer said Saturday the Refugee Board will accelerate the hearing process for all 263 migrants from the first and second boatloads. "They expect to have decisions on the people . . . by the end of December and that's quite a bit quicker than we would normally expect to see it." The normal process takes about eight months, Reimer said. The first migrant to go through the refugee process has been denied his claim. Officials did not believe his story about religious persecution in China. Reimer said Immigration officials have issued Canada-wide arrest warrants for 37 migrants who failed to show up for their hearings. That's almost half of the 76 adults from the first boatload who were released into the community. Authorities believe the missing individuals went to Toronto on their way to New York, their destination of choice. The Ministry of Children and Families has informed Immigration officials that 10 of 66 minors in foster homes have also disappeared, Reimer said. Canada Immigration will issue arrest warrants for them also if they do not turn up, she said. Immigration spokesman Rob Johnston said Friday that authorities are "taking a much stronger approach to detention because we do not believe the individuals will appear for removal from Canada." He would not elaborate. Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh said B.C. may turn to other provinces to help care for the minors who arrived aboard the first two ships. Do you have an opinion about one of our stories?Know someone who might be interested in this page? Just type in the email address to send them the URL
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