HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — A young Asian man who boarded an Air Canada flight in Hong Kong disguised as an elderly white male is seeking refugee status in Canada in what border officials are calling an “unbelievable case of concealment.”
An internal intelligence alert from the Canadian Border Service describes how the man boarded the flight in Hong Kong on Oct. 29 wearing a silicone mask to make him look like an elderly man.
The passenger was seen as an “elderly Caucasian male who appeared to have young-looking hands,” the border-service bulletin said. Later in the flight, however, “the subject attended the washroom and emerged an Asian-looking male that appeared to be in his early 20s.”
A spokesman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said a man is in detention and the matter is before Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board.
