Pacific Magazine > Daily News

200 Chinese Tourists Greeted By 'Pat Down' Searches On Saipan

Tuesday: October 07, 2008

(Saipan Tribune)

Chinese tourists among the first charter flights from Shanghai to Saipan last Saturday were subjected to intensive body searches by drug agents when they arrived on the island, the Saipan Tribune reports.

Over 200 Chinese tourists on the Shanghai Airlines flight, which arrived at 2 a.m., were taken into private rooms, patted down including their “private parts,” and had all their hand-carry luggage inspected by agents overseen by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

“Some of the tourists were yelling at our tour guides as soon as they came outside of the arrival area with comments like 'What kind of place is this! I will never come here again!' One lady told me that they even reached 'inside my hair, look at my hair now,' which was messy. Most of the tourists were scared and wanted to know why they were being disrespected by the customs agents,” an unnamed agent for Century Tours, which organized the charter flight, told the newspaper.

DEA Agent Daniel Holcomb said, “People should expect to see us at the airport because that is part of our job.” He said no contraband was found on the Shanghai flight.

The Marianas Visitors Authority is banking on tourists from China and Russia to prop up the commonwealth’s sagging visitor industry, which traditionally relies on visitors from Japan.

http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?newsID=84166&cat=1