Number 116 - September, 1999

Kick Me (I Like It!) -- 123 Illegals Sneak in on Derelict Boat

Nothing makes the wolf happier than when sheep pass resolutions favouring vegetarianism. When a listing hulk stuffed with 123 Chinese illegals hove into Nootka Sound, it is spotted by an airborne fisheries observer. Within the hour its presence is duly reported "to military intelligence, but three emergency numbers at Canada Immigration are only answered by voice mail. The next day the ship is discovered sixty to seventy miles away at anchor in Tahsis Inlet by two off-duty American policemen. ... Only then do Canada's watchmen go into action. The ship had been allowed to go wherever it wanted since the previous evening." (BC-TV, August 4, 1999) Sure, we could have seized the boat then and there and sold it to recoup deportation costs, but somebody wanted to send a clear message to organized crime: Hi there. We don't just condone the human smuggling game, we'd like you to join with us in fostering an environment where newcomers can bask in virtual slavery as they work off extortionate debts to Triad gangsters! Given the vessel's state-of-the-art Coast Guard dodging radar equipment, and careful eradication of name, flag, and identification numbers, there was little reason to hope anyone on board had remembered to bring their wallet.

They hadn't. According to early reports, the illegals "were well dressed and looked healthy. ... Observers who got close to the ship saw the passengers smoking cigarettes, chatting and snacking on chips, tossing the bags into the ocean." (Vancouver Province, July 21, 1999) While B.C.'s beloved Pacific shore makes an admirable trash can, it's no toilet: "human waste was evident on the deck and in the hold and buckets were overflowing." (Globe and Mail, July 22, 1999) Had any of these previously "well dressed" people been able to read or speak English, they would have been surprised to learn that overnight, the Canadian media had retrofitted them in "tattered and ragged clothes". In short order immigration lawyers were sniffing around, and, following an ice-breaking hunger strike (to protest special Fukianese-style catered dinners of sautéed calamari and steamed salmon), the refugee claims began to pour in -- 123 of them to be exact. Once the illegals were relieved of the prison-style weapons they had been industriously handicrafting in spare moments, they consented to attend their immigration hearings. Meanwhile, Paul Dupre, the president of Western Maritime Surveyors was called in by immigration officials to inspect the ship, with a view to tendering a bid to destroy the smuggler's vessel.

But Mr. Dupre was unaware of, or unimpressed by the official script. Following a three-hour examination, he concluded, "'I find it extremely unlikely that that boat came across on a 39-day crossing unassisted in any way.' ... He couldn't speculate about what assistance the ship might have received in arriving off B.C.'s shores; for example, whether it was towed across the ocean by a larger, better-equipped ship and then set adrift, or whether the migrants boarded the boat kilometres offshore and then travelled for a few days in the hold. ... [Just for argument's sake, what if these people came not from China, but from Canada?] For example, he said, when planning an ocean crossing, the rule of thumb is to have four litres of water per person per day for simple cooking and drinking.

If the journey took, as has been reported, 39 days, the ship would have required close to 20,000 litres of water. ... At most, Dupre said, the ship only had enough capacity to hold 800 litres o od water. It is possible the crew had plastic containers of water that they threw overboard, Dupre said. But the over-all condition of the ship -- with toilet paper, food packages and other garbage strewn across deck -- suggests the crew was not in the habit of jettisoning things during their voyage. ... 'I've never seen anything like it,' he said. 'The boat is strewn from bow to stern with wadded up toilet paper -- all over the deck, in the hold, in the lower part of the cabin.' ... The fuel capacity of the ship also raises doubts it made the journey alone, Dupre said. ... There was no evidence on board of an advanced fuel-storage system and -- like water containers -- Dupre thinks it unlikely the crew would jettison fuel bladders after they were used. ... Immigration and police officials on Vancouver Island have been saying all along how surprised they were that the ship was able to make it across the Pacific.

They had little response Thursday to the suggestion that it didn't." (Vancouver Sun, July 30, 1999) Still, let's try to put a brave face on our naiveté, shall we? Chances are, they won't be our problem for long. "Last year, the IRB in Vancouver cleared 602 cases involving Chinese refugee claimants. They allowed 63 claims and rejected 95 -- but 426 (70.8 per cent) either didn't show up for their hearings or were unreachable. Most of those who abandoned their claims are believed to no longer be in the country and have most likely fled to New York." (Vancouver Sun, July 26, 1999) And of course, we've been through this before; right down to worrying ourselves sick over the hunger strike. When we accepted 152 Tamils in 1986, and 178 East Indians (mostly Sikhs) a year later, we established the low tide mark in the annals of sovereign spinelessness.

Both groups arrived, not from war-torn homelands, but from Europe, where welfare is less extravagant. Not that that was any serious impediment. In both instances, refugee status was routinely granted to the vast majority. All subsequent violence associated with these two communities is presumably unrelated to admitting hundreds who arrive here in direct contravention of the law. "China's Public Security Bureau estimates that there are hundreds of thousands of Chinese outside China waiting to be smuggled to their final destinations." (Migration News, Vol. 6, No. 8, August 1999)