Tamil migrants arrive for refugee hearings

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METRO VANCOUVER – Many of the approximately 490 Tamil asylum seekers who arrived in B.C. last week have been brought to Metro Vancouver, where the first hearings in their refugee claim process begin Monday.

A group representing Canadian Tamils said detention hearings get underway at the downtown Vancouver offices of the Immigration and Refugee Board this afternoon. Officials will decide on a person-by-person basis whether to keep migrants in jail or release them so they can file refugee claims to stay in Canada.

The Canadian Tamil Congress said Sunday it has assembled a team of lawyers from Toronto and Vancouver to represent the approximately 400 men, 60 women and 30 children who arrived at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt Friday morning after three months in a small tramp freighter, the Sun Sea.

“So far we have about 10 lawyers on standby,” said David Poopalapillai, a Vancouver spokesman for the Tamil Congress. “The [first] challenge is for [the migrants] to prove their identities – that they are from Sri Lanka – with some kind of documentation, and that they are not tied to any illegal activity.

“We are not sure if these folks are carrying any identification with them. If not, they will have to contact family members in Canada or back in Sri Lanka.”

Legal counsel for the Tamil Congress, 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 will also have counsellors and psychologists available for those needing emotional support today.

“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.”

The Canada Border Services Agency said Saturday it had almost finished initial processing as the migrants were brought off the Sun Sea, which is docked in Colwood near Victoria. Files were opened on each migrant and over the weekend many were bused to jails in Maple Ridge.

Children, mostly with their mothers, were handed over to the B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development for care and were in “a safe and secure location,” a spokesman said. The ministry would not divulge the number of people in its care or where they are being housed, citing privacy and security reasons.

Sarujan Kanapathipillai, another spokesman for the Tamil Congress, said one of the emotional challenges facing the migrants was the death at sea of one of them. She said news of the death came from 35 of the female migrants who were interviewed by Congress lawyers on the weekend.

RCMP said Sunday that authorities have confirmed a 37-year-old man fell ill and died about three weeks ago while the Sun Sea was in international waters. He was buried at sea, and RCMP said in a statement there is no indication of foul play.

Kanapathipillai said the man is survived by his wife and child, who are in Sri Lanka. His name was not released.

“In a boat like that, if you’re in it for three or four months, you start forming a lot of personal relationships,” he said. “It’s very challenging for a lot of people to cope with the death. We are worried about the mental state of these children, having witnessed someone dying on a boat or going missing.”

But he said the migrants realized they were in for a long, tumultuous journey when they decided to make the trip.

“They took that risk because of the deplorable conditions in Sri Lanka and what they were trying to run away from,” he said.

Other than the single death on the extremely cramped 59-metre-long ship, authorities said the migrants were generally in good shape.

“I don’t think anybody would want to be on that vessel in those conditions,” Rob Johnston, regional director of the Canada Border Services Agency, told a news conference Saturday. But, he added: “I did not see, personally, anybody who looked like they’d been through a very harrowing experience.”

Some slept in hammocks, and tarps were draped over the deck to extend living quarters, Johnston said.

Johnston described a well-organized, relatively clean ship with separate sleeping spaces for men and women and children and an eating area. The vessel had even been outfitted with a sewage-disposal system.

It was stocked with dried fish, bags of rice, water and juice, Johnston said, and those on board appeared well-fed and dressed.

Only six of the migrants were admitted to Victoria General Hospital, two of whom were pregnant women. The rest were suffering mostly from dehydration and nausea, but all were relatively healthy, according to Vancouver Island Health Authority officials.

Health officials have found no indication of communicable diseases, said Peter Uhtoff of the Public Health Agency of Canada.

vluk@vancouversun.com