Canada Seizes Suspected Refugee Ship : More Illegal Aliens May Be Planning to Land, Officials Say

A small freighter suspected of carrying 174 Indian refugees to Canada was seized at sea Monday by Canadian authorities who said it is possible that still more illegal immigrants are offshore waiting to land.

According to army Col. Ira Creeman, “there is nothing factual to indicate a second ship out there. . . but there are some compelling rumors” that 160 to 180 women and children are on vessels off the coast of Nova Scotia.

He and other officials said those people are likely to be the wives and children of the 173 men and one woman who landed in darkness and fog Sunday morning in the tiny fishing village of Charlesville, about 150 miles southwest of Halifax.

Acknowledging that most of those who landed have denied that there are more immigrants to come, Creeman said nevertheless that the rumors come from the same sources who initially reported that an attempt would be made to illegally land immigrants.

‘Rather Strange’

“It seems rather strange that this number of people would come ashore without some dependents,” he added.

Another possible sign that more people are at sea was the reported absence of lifeboats on the seized ship. The refugees at first said they came ashore on lifeboats that returned to sea, suggesting the possibility that these small vessels had returned to a mother ship to pick up additional passengers. But although air and naval forces searched the Atlantic throughout the day Monday, they sighted nothing suspicious.

Canadian Immigration Minister Benoit Bouchard issued a statement in Ottawa saying that a Costa Rican-registered ship, the Amelie, had been seized and taken under tow by coast guard and Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers about 140 miles southeast of Halifax.

The Mounties said that the ship was to arrive in Halifax late Monday night and would be subject to confiscation by the Canadian government.

According to Lloyd’s Registry of vessels, the Amelie is a 497-ton general cargo carrier, 180 feet long, built in 1957 and owned by S.A. Lewoly, a person or company about which nothing is known.

Also Monday, two men who RCMP Superintendent A. Vaughan said were “connected to the ship” were charged in court with conspiracy to violate Canadian immigration laws. They were identified as Jasvir Singh, a resident of Coventry, England, and Rolf Nygren, a Swedish national.

Although Nygren was identified by Bouchard as “the presumed captain” of the Amelie, Vaughan expressed some doubt, suggesting that he was “somehow involved” with the ship.

If convicted, the two men could be fined up to $3,500 each and sentenced to two years in prison.

In the meantime, immigration officials continued efforts to identify the 174 people who landed Sunday and to determine their status. Wayne Piercey, an Immigration Ministry spokesman, said it will probably take the rest of the week to wrap up.

The refugees are being kept under guard in the gymnasium of a Halifax military base, allowed only to exercise by using an indoor track and sleeping on rough mats on a basketball court.

During a brief tour of the facilities, reporters were told only to look and that any effort to talk to the refugees would be punished.

Officials said that nearly all the refugees are from India and that most speak only Punjabi, the language of the Sikh religious and ethnic group. Residents of the area where the refugees landed quoted several of them as saying that they are Sikhs seeking status as refugees from religious and political persecution by India’s Hindu majority.

However, while a tour of the detention facility indicated that many of the refugees wear turbans favored by Sikhs, at least half do not. And, they appear to have separated themselves into two groups--those with turbans and those without. To complicate matters further, many of the refugees are clean-shaven. Sikhs generally have beards.

Under Canadian law, anyone claiming political or religious refugee status is allowed to stay pending a review procedure that can take up to three years. However, some sources said it appears that the 174 refugees thought they would be immediately deported unless they claimed to be members of such groups as the Sikhs.

William Marks, director of immigration in the Halifax office, said that while none of the refugees had any identity documents, “everything we have now” indicates that they are Indian.

What remains unclear is where they came from immediately before landing in Canada. They were quoted by local residents as saying that they came directly from India by sea after leaving May 20. However, the Mounties are checking papers and personal items found at the beach where they landed, indicating that they may have immediately come from West Germany. Also, Canadian diplomats in the Netherlands are checking reports that the Amelie had docked in Amsterdam on June 23.