Hundreds of Sri Lankan Tamil migrants who arrived aboard a rusty cargo ship were in good condition after their three-month voyage, Canadian officials said on Saturday.
The MV Sun Sea, a 59m Thai-registered ship reportedly carrying as many as 490 migrants, landed in Esquimalt, British Columbia on Friday, escorted by Canadian police and navy ships.
“The people [aboard] were in fairly good health and they were fairly cooperative,” said Rob Johnston, regional executive director for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), adding his staff had played with some of the children aboard and they appeared in good spirits.
So far, CBSA agents have processed 450 migrants, including 50 women and 50 children, but won’t provide a final number until today, Johnston said.
There was food and water found on the ship, including bags of rice and dried fish. Hammocks had been strung up below the ships decks and a tarp was hung on the rear of the vessel to provide additional sleeping area, Johnston said.
Twenty-seven migrants required hospital care, including two pregnant women, said Richard Crow of the Vancouver Island Health Authority. Six people remain in care at Victoria General Hospital.
Officials have begun transporting some of the migrants from makeshift accommodations in dockside tents at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt to detention centers near Vancouver.
Police continue to investigate allegations of human smuggling and that some migrants may be members of the Tamil Tigers, which has been banned as a terrorist organization in Canada, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Tracey Rook said.
Rook said officers are working with Canadian and foreign intelligence agencies, but would not disclose which governments are providing information.
“No weapons have been found” until now, but the search of the ship is not over yet, she added.
Sri Lanka last year ended decades of civil war by crushing the Tamil Tiger rebels in a bloody finale in which the UN says at least 7,000 civilians were killed.
Despite concerns about Sri Lanka’s human rights record, Western nations ban the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization. The group was known for suicide bombings and use of child soldiers.
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