The Canadian navy on Thursday intercepted a cargo ship carrying almost 500 Sri Lankan asylum seekers and prepared to screen them, fearing some could belong to the defeated and banned Tamil Tiger rebels.
After days of tracking by Canadian and US authorities, the navy and Canada Border Services Agency staff boarded the MV Sun Sea after the cargo ship appeared to veer from its expected destination in the Vancouver area, authorities said.
The HMCS Winnipeg “attempted to hail the Sun Sea several times and, after establishing communications, the vessel declared that it had refugees on board,” Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said, as quoted by public broadcaster CBC.
The Thai-flagged ship’s skipper said that some 490 refugees were on board, but Canadian authorities are unsure of their identities, Toews said.
Some of the people on the ship are “suspected human smugglers and terrorists,” he said.
Toews pledged that Canada would prosecute anyone involved in human trafficking, which he denounced as a “despicable crime.”
Canada and other Western nations have been critical of Sri Lanka’s human rights record, but consider the Tamil Tigers — known for their suicide bombings and child soldiers — a terrorist organization.
The Sri Lankan military crushed the Tigers in a bloody campaign last year, ending a 37-year civil war, but triggering concerns abroad over alleged human rights abuses.
Canada has one of the world’s most welcoming asylum policies and has a politically active Tamil community, which has urged their adopted country to grant asylum to the boat people.
In a similar incident in October last year, 76 Tamil refugees arrived on a ship to Canada where they were held but eventually released after none were determined to belong to the Tamil Tigers.
“We are optimistic that the Canadian government will do the same thing again,” said Manjula Selvarajah of the Canadian Tamil Congress.
“The idea of security, it’s very important to us as well. We are Canadian as well,” she said.
She also hinted that the accusations that the refugees were linked to the Tamil Tigers came from the Sri Lankan government.
Sri Lankan High Commissioner Chitranganee Wagiswara — the equivalent of an ambassador among Commonwealth nations — said that the ship was a “human smuggling operation managed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.”
In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that US authorities had monitored the ship to prepare for any eventuality. Media reports said the ship headed across the Pacific after being dissuaded from docking in Australia.
Tents were set up to accommodate the Sri Lankans once they dock near a naval base on Vancouver Island, which lies just off the mainland metropolis.
A vacant emergency ward has been set aside in Victoria General Hospital for “triage, screening and diagnostics,” hospital spokeswoman Shannon Marshall said.
Healthy migrants will be released back to federal authorities, said Marshall, “while those who require further care will be admitted to an area of the hospital that will be kept separate from the general population.”
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
Trinidad and Tobago declared a new state of emergency on Friday after authorities accused a criminal network operating in prisons across the country of plotting to kill key government officials and attack public institutions. It is the second state of emergency to be declared in the twin-island republic in a matter of months. In December last year, authorities took similar action, citing concerns about gang violence. That state of emergency lasted until mid-April. Police said that smuggled cellphones enabled those involved in the plot to exchange encrypted messages. Months of intelligence gathering led investigators to believe the targets included senior police officers,
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
RSS