Article in the Vancouver Sun today:
Seven Korean women ordered out of Canada
The Koreans were working in residential massage parlour
Nicholas Read, with a file from Doug Alexander
Vancouver Sun
August 10, 2004
CREDIT: Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun
Jung Park, a Korean national, is brought to an immigration hearing in Vancouver. Seven Korean women were ordered to leave Canada as soon as possible and not to return for at least a year.
Seven Korean woman were ordered home Monday following a raid by Vancouver police of what immigration officers described in documents as a "residential massage parlour with heavy traffic."
The women were arrested Aug. 5 after members of the police vice unit and immigration officers went to a house in the 1400 block of West 53rd Avenue in Vancouver.
The women were subsequently taken to the immigration department's B.C. Holding Centre at Vancouver International Airport, where they were held until a series of immigration hearings Monday ordered their removal from Canada.
They were all released pending the posting of security bonds, and told to leave Canada as soon as possible and not return for at least one year.
The women are identified as Jung Park, Hwa Yong Choi, Yun Hya Kim, Gi Young Nam, Ji Hee Nam, Min Kyong Kim and Su Wong Cho.
Police refused to comment on the case, saying it was still under investigation, but documents obtained from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIS) say the house in question had been identified by the vice unit as "a residential massage parlour with heavy traffic."
Among the crimes the vice unit investigates are those involving sexual exploitation, including prostitution and the running of bawdy houses.
According to a written statement by CIS agent Ward Hindson, when he and police went to the address last Thursday, "two Asian males and seven Asian females attempted to flee from the residence through the various exits. Six females climbed out of a basement window and attempted to hide in the bushes. One of the females . . . was discovered under a vehicle in the garage of the residence."
On Monday, the women, all in their early 20s and all Korean nationals, were led one by one in handcuffs to a series of hearings by the Immigration and Refugee Board to determine their future.
The women's lawyer, Robert Champoux, said none of the women contested the findings of immigration officers and agreed to leave the country on order by the board.
All the women were charged under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act with working without authorization in Canada. The women were said to have been employed at a "massage parlour" where they received $100 in cash for each 45-minute "full-body massage" given.
Two of the women were sisters and one of them was married with a young child in Korea.
The men arrested with them, identified in CIS documents only as "Mr. Chen and Mr. Ong," were both Canadian citizens.
The hearing was told that the women, some of whom were said to be university educated, arrived in Canada as sightseers, but saw an advertisement in a local Korean newspaper looking for women to perform massages at a private house. Canada does not require Korean visitors to carry visas, only return tickets.
Hindson's statement said Chen worked at the residence as a doorman, and that the residence had been open for business since March. Chen told Hindson that customers paid him $180 for each massage.
He said he did not know who hired the women.
The house in which the business was operated -- a well-kept, one-level rancher at 53rd and Granville that had two security cameras monitoring the main doors -- is owned by Frankie and Angela Man of Vancouver.
Seven Korean women ordered out of Canada
The Koreans were working in residential massage parlour
Nicholas Read, with a file from Doug Alexander
Vancouver Sun
August 10, 2004
CREDIT: Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun
Jung Park, a Korean national, is brought to an immigration hearing in Vancouver. Seven Korean women were ordered to leave Canada as soon as possible and not to return for at least a year.
Seven Korean woman were ordered home Monday following a raid by Vancouver police of what immigration officers described in documents as a "residential massage parlour with heavy traffic."
The women were arrested Aug. 5 after members of the police vice unit and immigration officers went to a house in the 1400 block of West 53rd Avenue in Vancouver.
The women were subsequently taken to the immigration department's B.C. Holding Centre at Vancouver International Airport, where they were held until a series of immigration hearings Monday ordered their removal from Canada.
They were all released pending the posting of security bonds, and told to leave Canada as soon as possible and not return for at least one year.
The women are identified as Jung Park, Hwa Yong Choi, Yun Hya Kim, Gi Young Nam, Ji Hee Nam, Min Kyong Kim and Su Wong Cho.
Police refused to comment on the case, saying it was still under investigation, but documents obtained from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIS) say the house in question had been identified by the vice unit as "a residential massage parlour with heavy traffic."
Among the crimes the vice unit investigates are those involving sexual exploitation, including prostitution and the running of bawdy houses.
According to a written statement by CIS agent Ward Hindson, when he and police went to the address last Thursday, "two Asian males and seven Asian females attempted to flee from the residence through the various exits. Six females climbed out of a basement window and attempted to hide in the bushes. One of the females . . . was discovered under a vehicle in the garage of the residence."
On Monday, the women, all in their early 20s and all Korean nationals, were led one by one in handcuffs to a series of hearings by the Immigration and Refugee Board to determine their future.
The women's lawyer, Robert Champoux, said none of the women contested the findings of immigration officers and agreed to leave the country on order by the board.
All the women were charged under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act with working without authorization in Canada. The women were said to have been employed at a "massage parlour" where they received $100 in cash for each 45-minute "full-body massage" given.
Two of the women were sisters and one of them was married with a young child in Korea.
The men arrested with them, identified in CIS documents only as "Mr. Chen and Mr. Ong," were both Canadian citizens.
The hearing was told that the women, some of whom were said to be university educated, arrived in Canada as sightseers, but saw an advertisement in a local Korean newspaper looking for women to perform massages at a private house. Canada does not require Korean visitors to carry visas, only return tickets.
Hindson's statement said Chen worked at the residence as a doorman, and that the residence had been open for business since March. Chen told Hindson that customers paid him $180 for each massage.
He said he did not know who hired the women.
The house in which the business was operated -- a well-kept, one-level rancher at 53rd and Granville that had two security cameras monitoring the main doors -- is owned by Frankie and Angela Man of Vancouver.