7 Die as Chinese Flee Smugglers’ Ship Off N.Y.

A freighter carrying hundreds of illegal Chinese immigrants ran aground off one of New York City’s most popular bathing beaches early Sunday. At least seven people perished as waves of immigrants leaped from the ship and struggled to reach shore through chilly Atlantic waters and heavy surf.

Rescuers who converged on the beach said they saw hundreds of immigrants jumping off the 150-foot-long, rust-flecked freighter or scrambling down ropes into the water.

Others crowded the ship’s deck, ignoring police and Coast Guard pleas to remain in place.

“Some people were in dire distress,” said David Martinez, a police officer who was one of the rescuers.

“It was like a plane crash on high seas,” a fireman added.

“I have never seen anything like this before,” said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, surveying masses of people, mostly men, huddled under gray blankets while rescue workers in helicopters and an armada of small vessels, rafts and even jet skis searched for additional survivors.

At least 29 people, including some rescuers, were injured seriously enough to be hospitalized.

Kelly said there were indications that the vessel may have been run aground deliberately in an effort to unload its human cargo so that many of the immigrants could melt away into the city before dawn.

He said suspicions were raised because the ship’s captain did not sound a distress call when the freighter ran aground in shallow waters about 350 yards off Rockaway Beach in Queens.

Other police officers noted that many of the immigrants carried their belongings in large plastic bags, as if prepared for the swim. Luggage was strewn for a mile along the beach.

“They had a mission to get on the beach,” said Gus Tripoli, a firefighter.

Officials said the grounding was the latest incident in a growing trade in Chinese immigrants.

More than a dozen ships carrying refugees from Fujian province in southeast China have been seized in the last six months, said U.S. officials, who concede that many others make it through.

On May 24, 240 Chinese immigrants were dropped off by a freighter beneath the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

A spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service said the Golden Venture, which beached on a sandbar near Rockaway Beach, was the 24th Chinese refugee ship to be seized since August, 1991.

Estimates of the numbers of refugees aboard the freighter varied. INS spokesman John Ingham placed the figure at 305, including the captain and crew of 11. He said the vessel came from Fujian province and was at sea for 112 days, having made stops in Thailand and Kenya.

Capt. Charles Wells of the city’s Emergency Medical Services unit said eight people died, including four who drowned, two who died at the scene and two who died later at a hospital. Ingham said he could confirm only seven deaths.

The INS official said 252 people were detained for hearings, but police said some of the immigrants apparently had escaped. Officials were looking for about 25 people believed still at large. All those being held were expected to ask for asylum, INS officials said.

The first word police received about 2 a.m. Sunday was that a large vessel was in distress. A nearby helicopter crew sent to the scene radioed that many people were swimming to shore.

The rescue operation mounted in the dead of night rivaled emergency mobilization for an airplane crash. Scuba divers and rafts were dropped from helicopters while police launches, fire boats and Coast Guard vessels sped to the scene.

One Coast Guard vessel capsized, slightly injuring one crewman.

Initial reports were that a party boat and a tanker had collided. The sense of urgency was heightened when there were reports--which later proved unfounded--that some of the people streaming ashore were armed with guns and knives.

Many of the illegal immigrants who struggled to the beach through 53-degree water suffered from exposure and hypothermia. Some swam and waded to shore. Others rode the surf in, using plastic jugs as floats.

Ambulance attendants treated scores of cases on the beach. A helicopter landing site was arranged so that two immigrants who went into cardiac arrest could be transported to a nearby hospital.

The rescue was made more difficult because many of the refugees refused to obey police orders to remain on board the freighter. As soon as helicopters moved away from the ship, the immigrants entered the water. The INS sent interpreters to the scene to plead with the passengers to remain with the vessel.

The darkness also made it difficult to set up a containment perimeter on the beach, allowing some of the illegal immigrants to slip away.

The crush of emergency vehicles that sped to the scene blocked vital access roads for a time, delaying the arrival of badly needed equipment.

New York Mayor David N. Dinkins traveled to the scene, which by daylight resembled an invasion by a ragtag army.

Police and fire department divers searched the area around the vessel Sunday, but by mid-afternoon reported that they had not found any more victims or survivors. More than 100 immigrants were questioned aboard the freighter by INS agents.

Others, who huddled under blankets on the beach, shivered from exposure. Few, if any, spoke English. Some smiled; others wept.

All were given cloth masks because of fears that tuberculosis was present aboard the vessel, and they were taken to detention centers.

Kelly said police are investigating the theory that Asian gangs may have helped arrange the journey. He said the ship will be confiscated and its crew members prosecuted on smuggling charges.

Chinese-speaking police detectives said some of the immigrants reported having made down payments of $3,000 after agreeing to be indentured servants.

INS officials said the immigrants are expected to seek asylum in the United States by citing Chinese population-control practices, which can include sterilizing a couple after a first child is born. The officials said a plea on those grounds is usually accepted.

In New York, the Immigration Court calendar is backed up for about a year.

“About 80% of the cases are approved,” said Arthur C. Helton, director of the refugee project of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.