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Tamil migrants claim they were fleeing mass murders in Sri Lanka
OTTAWA Tamil migrants who arrived in British Columbia last week say they were fleeing mass murders, disappearances and extortion in Sri Lanka.
The National Post obtained two letters claiming to be from groups of migrants detained at a jail near Vancouver.
About 490 would-be refugees arrived near Victoria on Friday morning aboard a ship that left the Gulf of Thailand in May. The approximately 400 men, 60 women and 30 children are set to begin detention hearings in Vancouver later this week.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Canadian authorities suspect members of the Tamil Tigers a rebel separatist group branded a terrorist organization by the Canadian government were aboard the ship.
But in the two letters, the migrants claim to be escaping persecution in the wake of government-led military operations in northern Sri Lanka, which ended in May 2009.
It was the end of a three-decade long conflict between government forces and the Tamil Tigers.
The United Nations has estimated that the fighting killed at least 7,000 civilians during the final five months of the conflict, and displaced about 280,000 people.
The first letter says that although the conflict in Sri Lanka has ended, "innocent Tamil people detained in prison have not been released. Displaced civilians have not resettled in their own homes. Instead, there is widespread occurrences of disappearances, mass murders and extortion."
The authors thanked Canadian officials for providing migrants with food and water after their ship was boarded Thursday evening.
"This has assured us with the safety of our lives."
The second letter claims to have been written by "the people who have arrived in the ship Sun Sea" who say they have undergone "severe hardships with very little access to basic necessities such as food, water, sleeping space, medicine and sanitary facilities."
"We have come here, to this wonderful country Canada, to protect ourselves and our family members from the murders, disappearances and violence that still exist in our native country," the letter reads.
Abuse in Sri Lanka has been widely reported by human-rights agencies around the world.
Amnesty International's 2010 report on Sri Lanka released at the end of May cites cases of arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial executions of people suspected to have links to the Tamil Tigers.
"Enforced disappearances were reported in many parts of the country, particularly in northern and eastern Sri Lanka and in Colombo," the report says.
Detention hearings were scheduled to begin on Monday but delayed due to legal proceedings.
Officials are expected to check the migrants' identification and decide on a person-by-person basis whether to keep them in jail or release them.
The hearings are overseen by the Immigration and Refugee Board, which will sort through documentation, identity issues and national security concerns before making any decisions.
The migrants are expected to make refugee claims. Canada has a high acceptance rate when it comes to refugee claimants from Sri Lanka. Since January, 85 per cent of claimants from that country have been accepted.
Canadian Tamil Congress lawyer Gary Anandasangaree said the politics surrounding the ship are overshadowing the stories and desperation of those who were aboard.
"There are 490 stories here, and we're not hearing them out," he said. "Let's not paint everybody as a human-smuggler or a terrorist. There's a five-year-old here. There are two unborn children."
Poopalapillai said the congress also will have counsellors and psychologists available for those needing emotional support.
"Although they have been declared physically healthy by government doctors, we believe their mental health is not that great," he said.
"These people have gone through a lot in their lives. They just went through a gruelling journey and now they're being detained. All these factors might have affected their mental health, especially the kids and women."
Earlier Monday, Toews said in Winnipeg that the Sun Sea had been refitted expressly for transporting asylum seekers with a clear eye toward enriching its owners.
It clearly wasn't a last-ditch, "last-minute" attempt to escape Sri Lanka organized by innocents, Toews said.
"It's clear the migrants were brought over here on a ship specially outfitted to bring them here," he said. "The boat itself was well-equipped to maximize profits."
On the weekend, Toews said that each passenger paid $40,000 to $50,000. At that rate, the ship owners may have pocketed more than $20 million.
Toews said the Sun Sea is a "test boat" that's part of an organized "criminal" enterprise. "Other boats may be waiting to see what the Government of Canada's reaction is to it," Toews said.
But an expert on immigration, refugee and human rights law said Toews' comments are just speculation.
"We don't need to rely on speculative comments by (Toews)," Queen's University law professor Sharryn Aiken said Monday. "Instead we should be looking at the objective documentation out there."
She said the security situation in Sri Lanka has improved since the end of the conflict but serious problems remain.
"I am not by any means suggesting that every Tamil in Sri Lanka is at risk. I want to be very clear about that," said Aiken. "But I am saying that Sri Lanka is a country with a serious human-rights problem . . . The end of a war doesn't lead to an automatic end of problems."
Aiken said reports by reputed human-rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group all note ongoing problems in Sri Lanka "and the failure of the government to take the necessary steps to achieve genuine reconciliation."
She added the reports note the security situation is particularly dangerous for women, children and anyone with suspect links to the Tamil Tigers, no matter how tenuous.
With files from the Vancouver Sun, Victoria Times Colonist and Winnipeg Free Press
Read more: Tamil migrants claim they were fleeing mass murders in Sri Lanka
OTTAWA Tamil migrants who arrived in British Columbia last week say they were fleeing mass murders, disappearances and extortion in Sri Lanka.
The National Post obtained two letters claiming to be from groups of migrants detained at a jail near Vancouver.
About 490 would-be refugees arrived near Victoria on Friday morning aboard a ship that left the Gulf of Thailand in May. The approximately 400 men, 60 women and 30 children are set to begin detention hearings in Vancouver later this week.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Canadian authorities suspect members of the Tamil Tigers a rebel separatist group branded a terrorist organization by the Canadian government were aboard the ship.
But in the two letters, the migrants claim to be escaping persecution in the wake of government-led military operations in northern Sri Lanka, which ended in May 2009.
It was the end of a three-decade long conflict between government forces and the Tamil Tigers.
The United Nations has estimated that the fighting killed at least 7,000 civilians during the final five months of the conflict, and displaced about 280,000 people.
The first letter says that although the conflict in Sri Lanka has ended, "innocent Tamil people detained in prison have not been released. Displaced civilians have not resettled in their own homes. Instead, there is widespread occurrences of disappearances, mass murders and extortion."
The authors thanked Canadian officials for providing migrants with food and water after their ship was boarded Thursday evening.
"This has assured us with the safety of our lives."
The second letter claims to have been written by "the people who have arrived in the ship Sun Sea" who say they have undergone "severe hardships with very little access to basic necessities such as food, water, sleeping space, medicine and sanitary facilities."
"We have come here, to this wonderful country Canada, to protect ourselves and our family members from the murders, disappearances and violence that still exist in our native country," the letter reads.
Abuse in Sri Lanka has been widely reported by human-rights agencies around the world.
Amnesty International's 2010 report on Sri Lanka released at the end of May cites cases of arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial executions of people suspected to have links to the Tamil Tigers.
"Enforced disappearances were reported in many parts of the country, particularly in northern and eastern Sri Lanka and in Colombo," the report says.
Detention hearings were scheduled to begin on Monday but delayed due to legal proceedings.
Officials are expected to check the migrants' identification and decide on a person-by-person basis whether to keep them in jail or release them.
The hearings are overseen by the Immigration and Refugee Board, which will sort through documentation, identity issues and national security concerns before making any decisions.
The migrants are expected to make refugee claims. Canada has a high acceptance rate when it comes to refugee claimants from Sri Lanka. Since January, 85 per cent of claimants from that country have been accepted.
Canadian Tamil Congress lawyer Gary Anandasangaree said the politics surrounding the ship are overshadowing the stories and desperation of those who were aboard.
"There are 490 stories here, and we're not hearing them out," he said. "Let's not paint everybody as a human-smuggler or a terrorist. There's a five-year-old here. There are two unborn children."
Poopalapillai said the congress also will have counsellors and psychologists available for those needing emotional support.
"Although they have been declared physically healthy by government doctors, we believe their mental health is not that great," he said.
"These people have gone through a lot in their lives. They just went through a gruelling journey and now they're being detained. All these factors might have affected their mental health, especially the kids and women."
Earlier Monday, Toews said in Winnipeg that the Sun Sea had been refitted expressly for transporting asylum seekers with a clear eye toward enriching its owners.
It clearly wasn't a last-ditch, "last-minute" attempt to escape Sri Lanka organized by innocents, Toews said.
"It's clear the migrants were brought over here on a ship specially outfitted to bring them here," he said. "The boat itself was well-equipped to maximize profits."
On the weekend, Toews said that each passenger paid $40,000 to $50,000. At that rate, the ship owners may have pocketed more than $20 million.
Toews said the Sun Sea is a "test boat" that's part of an organized "criminal" enterprise. "Other boats may be waiting to see what the Government of Canada's reaction is to it," Toews said.
But an expert on immigration, refugee and human rights law said Toews' comments are just speculation.
"We don't need to rely on speculative comments by (Toews)," Queen's University law professor Sharryn Aiken said Monday. "Instead we should be looking at the objective documentation out there."
She said the security situation in Sri Lanka has improved since the end of the conflict but serious problems remain.
"I am not by any means suggesting that every Tamil in Sri Lanka is at risk. I want to be very clear about that," said Aiken. "But I am saying that Sri Lanka is a country with a serious human-rights problem . . . The end of a war doesn't lead to an automatic end of problems."
Aiken said reports by reputed human-rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group all note ongoing problems in Sri Lanka "and the failure of the government to take the necessary steps to achieve genuine reconciliation."
She added the reports note the security situation is particularly dangerous for women, children and anyone with suspect links to the Tamil Tigers, no matter how tenuous.
With files from the Vancouver Sun, Victoria Times Colonist and Winnipeg Free Press
Read more: Tamil migrants claim they were fleeing mass murders in Sri Lanka
