Canada makes the first move:

Global alert on refuge seekers

By Ranil WIJAYAPAL

When Sri Lanka was embroiled in three decades long conflict, nations across the globe were sympathetic towards Tamils from the Northern and Eastern parts of Sri Lanka who sought refuge in their countries considering the threats they had to face in Sri Lanka.

But those countries were not aware that except for fewer percentage of people many of the Tamil people who sought refuge in those countries were abusing their laws to reach their private agendas taking cover of these countries.

Those countries which used to host these asylum seekers were surprised to see ship loads and boat loads of Tamil people arriving at their countries seeking asylum even after the three decade long conflict in Sri Lanka came to an end in May 2009.

The illegal arrivals of the 'Ocean Lady' and the 'MV Sun Sea' in the shores of Canada in less than 12 months interval attracted the attention of the international media and it paved the way for the exposure of the 'Tiger networks' based in different countries launching these human smuggling rackets taking the advantage of lax laws prevalent in the countries like Canada.

The ship 'MV Sun Sea' which carried 492 Tamils on board arrived in Canada shores even after the United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR issued a statement to the effect that given the cessation of hostilities, Sri Lankans originating from the north of the country are no longer in need of international protection under broader refugee criteria or complementary forms of protection solely on the basis of risk of indiscriminate harm.

The UNHCR in its report released on July 5, 2010, titled 'Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Asylum-Seekers from Sri Lanka', further stated that the human rights and security situation in Sri Lanka has improved.

Even before the UNHCR issued the statement about the Sri Lankan refugees the government of Australia in April 2010 tightened its stance over Sri Lankan asylum seekers when they declared that asylum seekers from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan were not welcome and went to the extent of freezing the processing of their applications.

It was reported that the Australian Government denied the vessel 'MV Sun Sea' which sailed from the Gulf of Thailand to enter their territorial waters as they were aware of the fact that the ship was carrying illegal immigrants.

But the Canadian Government welcomed the ship in mid August but realised the gravity of the problem once the Canadian media exposed the networks behind the human smuggling racket in foreign soils and also based in Canada taking the advantage of their soft approach towards illegal migrants.

That prompted the Canadian Government bring new legislations to curb human smuggling and the abuse of the Canadian refugee system.

The Canadian Government introduced Bill C49, the Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act on October 21, 2010.

Introducing the new Bill, at a function held on October 21, at Public Safety Marine Base, Unit 3, at Vancouver with the illegal vessel Ocean Lady background Canadian Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews said that the illegal arrival of the vessel MV Ocean Lady and the Sun Sea in Candian shores in less than 12 months clearly demonstrates that human smuggling networks are targeting Canada as a destination and that they believe the Canada's generous immigration system can be exploited for profit.

"That is why today our government introduced Bill C49, the Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act", he added.

"Through this Act the Canadian Government is cracking down on those criminals who would abuse our generous immigration system and endanger the safety and security of Canadian communities", he added.

"Under the Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act our government is enabling the Minister of Public Safety to declare the existence of a human smuggling event and make those involved subject to the Act's measures", he said.

"It makes easier to prosecute human smugglers. It imposes mandatory minimum prison sentences on convicted human smugglers and it holds ship owners and operators to account for use of their ships in human smuggling operations", Minister Vic Toews added.

The Act also include deterrence measures that would specifically apply to illegal migrants who come to Canada by way of a human smuggling operation.

It seeks to ensure that illegal migrants who obtain refugee status can be re-assessed within five years to determine whether they still need protection or can be returned to their country of origin and to ensure that the health benefits the illegal migrants receive are not more generous than those received by the Canadian public from the government.

The Act also says that refugee or refugee applicants who were illegal migrants are not able to come back to Canada if they return to the country from which they sought refuge, or if they demonstrate in other ways that they are not legitimately in need of Canada's protection and preventing illegal migrants from sponsoring family members for five years.

It has also been reported that the Canadian Government is also having discussions with the Australian Government to have further crackdown on the illegal immigrants especially the Sri Lankan illegal immigrants.

Australian High Commissioner for Canada Justice Brown in one of his report had mentioned that with regard to this matter, discussions will be held between Canada and Australia.

From the year 2010 up to now, 105 boats carrying refugees from Sri Lanka including other countries have reached Australia. Approximately 4600 illegal migrants are detained in Australian camps.

The Sri Lankan High Commission in Canada states that with the introduction of new laws by the Canadian Government a large number of Sri Lankan refugees living in Canada arriving at the High Commission in Canada on a daily basis in order to travel back to their homeland.

With the newly introduced law the refugees who are returning to their country will be disqualified from their refugee status if they returned to their country.

Meanwhile, the Government of Thailand is also taking stern action against the Tamil illegal migrants in Thailand after investigations revealed that all Sri Lankan illegal migrants to Canada boarded the ship MV Sun Sea from Thailand.

The Immigration Bureau of Thailand along with the commando unit of the Crime Suppression Division arrested nearly 155 Sri Lankan illegal immigrants.

Upon a tip-off, the commando units and the Immigration Bureau raided several apartments in 17 locations around Sai Mai district, Bangkok, and arrested 155 Sri Lankan immigrants.

Out of the 155 Tamil illegal immigrants arrested in Thailand is currently holding 128 Tamil migrants for possible deportation, sources from Thailand said.

According to UNHCR's most recent statistics, there are a total of 146,098 Sri Lankan refugees in 64 countries. India (73,269), France (20,464), Canada (19,143), Germany (12,248), United Kingdom (8,615), Switzerland (2,836), Malaysia (2,132), Australia (2,070), United States (1,561) and Italy (964) are the top 10 countries hosting Sri Lankan refugees.

There are also 7,562 Sri Lankan asylum seekers known to UNHCR in 57 countries.

Many Tamils living in Tamil Nadu in India are now returning to Sri Lanka with the help of the UNHCR and the repatriation of the Sri Lankan living abroad as asylum seekers is expected to increase with many countries are tipped to tighten laws regarding them in the coming months.