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CONTAINER SMUGGLING FROM CHINA TURNS FATAL
Following the discovery of four boats smuggling people, mostly from China, into the US and Canada last week, more incidents involving the same circumstances have occurred this week, including one in which three people died. 
On board a ship discovered early this week in the Seattle port were 15 young men who made it to the end of the journey.  There were also the bodies of three people who did not, two young men and one elderly woman.  According to officials, the people had been dead for as long as three days.  The ship carrying these people belonged to the same company that owned one of the ships discovered earlier this month, but INS officials are quick to stress that this does not mean the shipping company is involved. 
This is the first time that anyone is aware of someone dying while being smuggled into the US via container.  Only a day after this tragic incident, 19 men were found in a container aboard another ship docked in the Seattle port.  While all of the ships on which the smuggled immigrants were found had last docked in Hong Kong,
Hong Kong officials have responded to the recent events by pledging to increase coordination with US and Canada officials, and many of the recent discoveries in the Northwest came after Hong Kong officials notified US and Canadian officials of possible smuggling.  They have also promised to work to inspect more soft-top containers, the most used type in container smuggling.  In many of these inspections, they will be using heat sensors to locate heat that could indicate the presence of a person.  However, it would be impossible for customs officials to search each of the six million containers that pass through the Hong Kong port each year, and once the container is sealed and loaded onto a ship, the shipping company is not authorized to open it.