By Amanda Sri
COLOMBO, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- At last, these Sri Lankan Tamils reached the alien soil ending their harrowing sea journey through the Pacific.
The controversial ship claimed to be carrying Tamil Tiger rebels (Liberation of Tamil Tigers of Eelam, or the LTTE) of Sri Lanka was under the naval microscope for over three months and at last the radars detected its destination -- Canada, which has banned the LTTE as a terrorist organization.
The shipload of Sri Lankans over 490, including women and children, sailed for over three months via Pacific on the cramped MV Sun Sea cargo ship and docked on Aug. 13 near British Columbia' s capital of Victoria on Vancouver Island.
Soon after the 59-meter cargo ship with Thai flag docked in the British Colombia waters, it was surrounded by Canadian naval frigates and police helicopters due to claims that LTTE members might be among the passengers. Canadian officials stood on deck wearing face masks as a precaution.
The ship Harin Panchin, re-named as MV Sun Sea, has been detected by Canadian, U.S. and Australian radar since May. It tried to land in Thailand before.
According to Canadian health authorities, all refugees ranged from toddlers to a couple in their seventies are in good health. After screening, the first busloads of immigrants were ferried to the mainland to be housed in jails in Maple Ridge.
Though the ship was too small for housing nearly 500 people, the environment was clean and it had a system to dispose waste. It has separate sections for men, women and children. The ship had good stocks of food and water.
No weapons have been found so far and according to the authorities, they are looking for the organizers of the journey and gathering evidence on violations of any criminal procedures.
The Victoria General Hospital was kept ready to treat the passengers but there were no serious health problems other than tiredness. Only 27 passengers, including five children and two pregnant women needed to be hospitalized.
With no proof yet about any hardcore LTTE members, Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews warned of the ship saga as part of a wider smuggling operation linked to the LTTE.
Toews said the smuggling seemed to be a lucrative business as each passenger has to pay 50,000 U.S. dollars for the journey.
The Canadian government is considering amending the exiting laws of the shipping industry to make carrying proper documentation of each passenger mandatory.
All passengers seeking refugee status are subjected to detention hearing at the moment.
Toews said the only way to prevent ships from loading illegal immigrants to Canada was to stop them from leaving foreign ports.
"Human smuggling, illegal migration or any other abuses of Canada's immigration system cannot and will not be tolerated," said Toews.
Stephen Green, chairman of the Canadian Bar Association said they were carrying out a full investigation into each individual in the ship to verify whether they have terrorist connections.
"If so, they would be kept in detention and eventually returned to Sri Lanka," Green said.
Canada, which has a reputation as "the softest touch in the world", opens for 10,000 and 20,000 refugees annually. As entering into Australian soil has become difficult, human traffickers have focused their business more on Canada with its relaxing regulations for immigrants.
Observers say with some groups claiming human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, the island's Tamils have increased their attempts to seek refugee status in Canada.
This is despite a UN report released in July saying Sri Lankan Tamils do not need to seek asylum as the situation has improved greatly with the end of the civil war.
Still, Canada has one of the highest refugee acceptance rates in the world, and 85 percent of Sri Lankans applying this year have gained refugee status.
The Canadian authorities are considering making its immigration laws as tough as that in Australia to put a halt to rapid illegal human flow to the country.
