Canada’s lax response to the arrival of a South Asian refugee ship last year has encouraged the voyage of a new vessel headed for B.C. with migrants reportedly linked to the Tamil Tigers, says a terrorism expert who has advised the Canadian government.
A Thai cargo ship called the MV Sun Sea is said to be en route to Canada with about 200 illegal migrants. The Asian Tribune Web-based newspaper reported Sunday that the 59-metre vessel was seen over the weekend near Guatemala heading north.
“They see Canada as a soft landing place,” said Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based terrorism expert at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, who offered advice to the Canadian government last year on how to deal with Tamil migrants.
Mr. Gunaratna’s involvement came after the MV Ocean Lady turned up in October off British Columbia with 76 Tamil asylum seekers from Sri Lanka. The vessel was allegedly controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
All of the 76 were initially jailed while their lawyers fought terrorism allegations. But just after New Years, the migrants were released, without explanation, on tight conditions they report for refugee hearings.
Lawyers for the Ocean Lady migrants questioned Mr. Gunaratna’s credibility in hearings before the Immigration and Refugee Board last year, but an adjudicator before the board deemed the security-studies professor “credible and trustworthy.”
Mr. Gunaratna said he has heard of two other ships beyond the MV Sun Sea headed for Canada, but declined to be specific about the source of his information.
“The Canadian response to Ocean Lady was perceived as weak and Canada is seen as an easy target by the Tamil Tigers,” he said Sunday from Yemen.
“What happened to those 76 people? They are now living happily in Canada so, naturally, Canada will become a destination for similar criminals, similar human-smuggling ventures.”
“The boat will come to Canada unless the ship sinks. Otherwise there is no other venue for them to go, no other place for them to go.”
David Poopalapillai, a spokesman for the Canadian Tamil Congress, said Sunday that the arrival of the ship appears inevitable, but disputed Mr. Gunaratna’s interpretation of the situation by noting that terrorism connections have yet to be proved among the last group of refugees and that Mr. Gunaratna may be biased against them.
Mr. Poopalapillai said the migrants are taking unacceptable risks to come Canada, and that the ultimate solution is for the Canadian government to work to improve situations in Sri Lanka so there is no need for such flight efforts.
“The war has come to an end, but there is no peace,” he said, arguing that Tamils remain subject to harassment.
In a statement, the Foreign Affairs Department said they are aware of media reports about the vessel.
Canada’s “strategic approach” is to stop such ships “at their points of departure,” said the statement, which did not provide any details.
Last month, The Globe and Mail reported that Ottawa had the ship under scrutiny as part of a “pushing borders out strategy” to look out for such schemes.
“Those responsible for migrant smuggling will be pursued, investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of Canadian law and in accordance with the provisions of international Conventions and Protocols,” said the statement.
The federal immigration department Sunday declined comment on the matter, referring a Globe and Mail query to foreign affairs.
