By Associated Press
Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands — U.S. authorities detained dozens of illegal Chinese migrants in international waters near the U.S. Virgin Islands, keeping them on Coast Guard ships until officials negotiate a deal for nearby islands to help process them.
The U.S. Coast Guard sent four crew members and five Chinese nationals from the intercepted boat over to U.S. federal authorities on the island of St. Croix on Saturday. The unidentified boat was intercepted last Wednesday about 60 miles southeast of St. Croix.
The rest of the migrants, roughly “several dozen,” were on Coast Guard cutters in international waters east of St. Croix, Petty Officer Michael Taravella said Saturday. The unidentified boat is also under guard about 13 miles east of St. Croix.
Neither Coast Guard nor U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials could confirm if the migrants were still on the boats Sunday. Local police said they did not know because they are not involved.
“They are being detained on board a couple of Coast Guard cutters until a decision is made as to how and where they would be processed, and then eventually repatriated,” Taravella had said Saturday.
The U.S. State Department was negotiating with the British Virgin Islands and Dutch St. Maarten to take some of the migrants for processing, Taravella said.
The four crew members would likely face charges, officials said. It was not clear why the five Chinese migrants were brought to the island. When the group was brought to St. Croix, federal immigration and justice department officials whisked them away. There was no further information available.
Officials said they did not know where the boat was headed, but the U.S. Virgin Islands is often used by immigrant smuggling rings that usually go through Dutch St. Maarten, immigration officials have said. U.S. Virgin Islands authorities last year arrested 600 illegal Chinese immigrants. |
