Cunard have long boasted – with some justification – that sailing into New York on board luxurious liner Queen Mary 2 is the best way to arrive in America. It is indeed an unforgettable sight, despite the fact that it’s necessary to be up at some unfeasible hour to get the full experience of sailing under the Verazzano Narrows Bridge and past the Statue of Liberty as Manhattan’s skyscrapers see the first of the dawn sun.
It’s certainly a stylish and extremely unusual way for an illegal immigrant to arrive.
But when QM2 arrived the harbour recently, five men and four women were taken into custody and a Malaysian man, Fatt Kwee Wong was arrested and charged with smuggling the passengers, who were Chinese citizens, into the US.
Customs and Border Protection authorities say it is the first case of its kind. The illegal immigrants were not stowaways – they boarded the ship legitimately in Dubai. Wong allegedly claimed to have been paid $3,000 (£2,000) each to bring them into the US.
A Cunard spokesperson confirmed that a number of passengers arriving in New York on the ship on April 26 were found to be travelling with fake passports.
Suspicions were aroused at an immigration check at the Brooklyn pier when Wong, carrying a Japanese passport, could not tell officials the names of his nine companions. A fingerpint check showed that he was wanted for smuggling immigrants into Bermuda, court records later disclosed.
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