INS Press Release

June 22, 1999

INS Repatriates Second Group of Chinese Nationals from Tinian

GUAM – The Immigration and Naturalization Service today announced the repatriation of 291 Chinese nationals. This is the second group of Chinese nationals repatriated to China since a surge of illegal smuggling vessels began targeting the island of Guam earlier this year. The U.S. INS repatriated the first group of 101 Chinese nationals May 28. This second repatriation flight included all the remaining Chinese nationals on the Island of Tinian, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) to include those on board a sinking vessel intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard on May 30.

As with the first repatriation flight, the 291 Chinese were transported by ferry from Tinian, CNMI to Saipan, CNMI, where they boarded a charter flight. The plane took off from the Saipan International Airport about 7 a.m. Saipan time and arrived in Fuzhou, China about 10 a.m. Beijing time. Prior to their departure, the citizens of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) had been in a camp operated by U.S. INS on the island of Tinian,

The group was part of some 1,000 smuggled Chinese nationals who were either intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard or apprehended by U.S. INS officials during April and May.

"This second repatriation flight of 291 Chinese nationals reiterates our commitment to enforce immigration law to the fullest extent," said David Johnston, Officer in Charge of the Guam U.S. INS Office.

Besides the 291 Chinese nationals returned to China today and the 101 returned on May 28, 60 others who arrived on separate boats have been charged with federal smuggling offenses which carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison. More prosecutions by the U.S. Attorney in Guam are expected in coming weeks.

"We cannot be more emphatic, we will not tolerate unscrupulous smugglers who are all too willing to put money ahead of the lives of people. We will investigate and prosecute those who traffic in human lives to the fullest extent of the law," Johnston said.

In recent months, there has been a surge in the number of boats, primarily stateless fishing vessels, that have tried to make it to Guam’s shores carrying Chinese nationals as cargo. Since May 1998, 18 such boats carrying approximately 1,000 people have either landed on Guam or been intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard and taken to Tinian. Most of the migrants were found amid deplorable conditions, overcrowded in rusting vessels that lacked sanitation facilities and sufficient food and water. One vessel sank shortly after it was intercepted by the Coast Guard on May 28. None of the vessels carried lifeboats.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Coast Guard brought the 378-foot Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau to the area to assist in deterring and interdicting smuggling boats. The latest smuggling boat was interdicted the Morgenthau, May 30. Two additional cutters from Hawaii are expected to join the Morgenthau this month; the ships will likely rotate patrol duties in the area. They will augment Guam’s normal Coast Guard presence, which includes the buoy tender Sassafras, the cutter Galveston Island, and a C-130 search-and-rescue aircraft.

In April, after available detention space at the Department of Correction’s Mangilao facility on Guam was filled with migrants, the U.S. Department of Defense erected a tent camp on WWII airfields on the island of Tinian, one of the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands located 90 miles northeast of Guam. This second repatriation flight will make possible the dismantling of the tent city erected on Tinian since all remaining Chinese nationals in INS custody on that island will have been removed.

– INS –