August 24, 1999	atimes.com

China Canada becomes a target for people-smugglers By Mark Bourrie OTTAWA - The arrival early this month of 130 illegal Chinese immigrants on a deserted beach on Canada's Queen Charlotte Islands, on the northern Pacific coast, has raised fears that Canada is now a prime target for Asian smuggling gangs known as ''snakeheads''. These gangs charge up to $70,000 to smuggle people to the West, where accomplices arrange jobs - which can be in restaurants, brothels or sweatshops. If the migration price is not paid, the gangs use violence to intimidate the immigrants or their families. The immigration service in the neighboring United States has reported ''a surge of unprecedented magnitude'' in illegal arrivals on the Pacific island of Guam, which smugglers falsely portray as a gateway to mainland America Boatloads more turned up earlier this year in Australia, lured by false promises of jobs at the Sydney Olympic Games, or a millennium amnesty for illegal immigrants. New Zealand recently rushed a bill through its parliament allowing for the indefinite detention of illegal immigrants. China reportedly has launched a crackdown on the snakeheads. But in the coastal villages of southeastern China's Fujian province, a building boom is testament to the thousands who manage to make the journey westward. New houses, churches and temples have been built with money sent back from overseas, their turrets or Chinese pagoda roofs towering above the brick huts of the less fortunate. Jinfeng, near the provincial capital, Fuzhou, is said to be a ''widows' village'' because all the men have left for North America. In nearby Houyu, four-fifths of the population have left in the past decade. Yangyu's mariners' temple, newly restored in thanks for keeping emigrants safe on the high seas, has an honor board recording donations, all in US dollars and all from illegal emigrants. The Chinese on the Queen Charlotte Islands were the second group of smuggled immigrants to be caught this summer. As well, several shiploads of migrants were probably successfully smuggled into Canada this year, according to immigration officials. At least two other ships are believed to be now on their way to Canada, one from Asia, the second from a port on the Baltic Sea. Both are carrying Chinese migrants, say immigration department sources. Last month, a ship arrived at Vancouver Island with 123 passengers. So far, 86 have been released by Canadian immigration officials and 37 remain in custody. Of those who have been released, most are living in Vancouver, awaiting refugee hearings and receiving welfare payments of $500 a month. All have claimed refugee status. Police are investigating 20 of those in detention for their role in the smuggling operation but no one has been charged with any offense. Immigration adjudicators, however, have agreed to keep them in custody until their identities and roles in the operation can be sorted out. One official said that the investigation had entered a ''new stage''. Murray Wilkinson said the suspects were being investigated for their respective actions during the vessel's harrowing 38-day voyage. Conditions on the ship were abysmal and the vessel stalled at sea more than once because of engine failure. Meanwhile, the eight suspected Korean smugglers who crewed the ship that left the Chinse migrants on the Queen Charlotte Islands face prosecution if they are returned home, the South Korean consul in Vancouver said. ''It is a crime under the Korean criminal law,'' said consul Joonyong Park. ''Aside from the penalty they receive here from the Canadian law, they could be punished by the Korean law separately if they committed the crime.'' The boat used by the smugglers to Queen Charlotte Islands was a former fishing vessel and was seized by Canadian officials hours after it dropped off the immigrants and made a dash for international waters. It left its passengers on one of the most remote places on the Pacific coast, a small, aboriginal-owned, virtually uninhabited island with no roads and no link to the North American mainland. For nearly a day, the migrants, who had been given lifejackets and were told to swim ashore, huddled on a rock beach waiting for help. Several had to be treated for hypothermia and one man is still missing. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Tracey Rook said the eight crew members of the ship had been charged under the Immigration Act with aiding and abetting a party of 10 or more people to illegally enter the country. They were also charged with causing a person to disembark at sea. If found guilty, they faced fines of 500,000 dollars or 10 years in jail. A Chinese diplomat said Canada's immigration laws were partly to blame for tempting illegal immigrants to leave China. ''The laws of Canada are quite attractive,'' observed Ping Huan, counsellor general at the Chinese embassy in Ottawa. ''There are some loopholes and they feel if they can land in your country they can manage to survive.'' Huan, who has only been at his Ottawa posting for a few months, said he was glad to see the Canadian government treating the two recent boat-loads of would-be migrants with such decency. But he couldn't help feeling slightly surprised to see them freed so quickly after their arrival. Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan defended Canada's immigration system by saying that Canada is a world leader at intercepting illegal migrants abroad before they can set foot on Canadian soil and seek refugee status. She said that in 1998, Canadian officials intercepted close to 6,300 illegal migrants destined for Canada - mainly at airports - nearly twice the number than a year earlier, when 3,186 individuals were stopped. The minister said that proposed changes to Canada's immigration laws - stronger means to intercept illegal immigrants, stiffer penalties for people-smugglers and increased use of detention when people are smuggled into the country - should serve as a deterrent. She added: ''We don't know if we are dealing with refugees at this time. We have a refugee determination procedure. We are hoping that that process will be expedited. If people are legitimate, genuine refugees, I know Canadians will welcome them. If they are not, then deportation orders will be issued,'' she said. (Inter Press Service)

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