Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Former female fighters strive for a better life

For many of Sri Lanka's former female combatants, the road back to normalcy will be a long one

BATTICALOA, 29 September 2010 (IRIN) - Lalitha* was 23, from Petiva Pullumalai, deep in Sri Lanka's eastern interior, when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) came for her.

At the time, each family living under LTTE control was required to provide a child to the separatist forces fighting for an independent Tamil homeland for three decades. Lalitha joined up to spare her younger sister.

After heading a female Tamil Tiger team in battle for nine years, Lalitha escaped in 2004 to take care of her then-ailing mother, only to end up on the run.

She was terrified of being identified by the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) or the LTTE and putting her family at risk.

"Every day I would change my accommodation so I would not be tracked down," she said. Today Lalitha lives with her mother in their partially built home, earning a small wage managing a makeshift shop in the eastern city of Batticaloa.

Bias

According to the World Bank, only one-third of skilled youth are employed in Sri Lanka and much of the Batticaloa's population remains dependent on traditional livelihoods like fishing and paddy farming to subsist.

But for women like Lalitha, that struggle can be more pronounced.

The biggest problem for female ex-combatants in Batticaloa is that a conservative Tamil civilian society does not allow them to use the skills they learnt in the armed movement, said Sonny Inbaraj, a researcher from the UK-based Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, who recently completed a study on the reintegration of female ex-combatants in Batticaloa.

"Society would have them learning how to sew or be domestic helpers, rather than being carpenters, masons, bricklayers or computer repairers," he said.

At the same time, however, Inbaraj believes the women have formed strong support networks among themselves, and are often the heads of households in this post-war period.

"I don't think there is stigma at the community level against the women ex-combatants... Most of them were from areas that supported the Tigers," he says.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has helped 660 ex-combatants, more than 50 of them women, who took the risk to enrol in the government-backed plan in the east.

"These are people in government rehab centres," Richard Danzinger, IOM's chief of mission in Sri Lanka, said. "Once discharged they come to us, and we see what their needs and aspirations are. Then we provide both direct and indirect assistance. For example, business grants, civic education training and vocational training."

Rasenthi*, from rural Thihilivetta in the east, was 13 when the LTTE knocked on her family's door. She survived a fierce battle in the LTTE stronghold of Vaharai when 80 Tigers were killed, including her best friend, and Rasenthi was hit by shrapnel. After an operation by LTTE medics, metal now replaces bone on the right side of her skull.

"When I came home I had a bad reputation," Rasenthi recalls. "Many of my old friends didn't talk to me, and feared to be associated with me." After being identified by the SLA, Rasenthi ran away to hide near Batticaloa town for three years. "I was very scared," she says.

Skills training

The 22-year-old now says she has missed too much school to return. She has instead enrolled in a six-month bakery course at the national Sarvodaya vocational training centre in Batticaloa, hoping for a steady job.

The Sarvodaya programme is part of the government-backed reintegration programme that offers vocational skills for aspiring electricians, plumbers, beauticians and food manufacturers, and community leadership training.

UNICEF campaign for the disarmament of (female) child soldiers
To date, some 200 people have graduated from the programme, and there is a large demand from the private sector for their skills, E.L.A. Careem, Sarvodaya's long-term coordinator in Batticaloa, says.

"With the last 30 years of war, many youth have had difficulties with work and their future," he says. "Mentally and physically they have had challenges - no father, mother, or sister. And many only have only low-level skills, as compared to youth in Colombo. But gradually we are establishing a new generation."

* Not their real names

Copyright © IRIN 2010. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Emotional homecoming after 21 years for Sri Lanka widow

It is an intensely emotional homecoming for Mangayarkarasi Amirthalingam.


Decades ago Appapillai and Mangayarkarasi Amirthalingam were a formidable political team

After 21 years she has returned to the residence where her family stayed in Colombo on the fateful day her husband - one of the most prominent Tamil political leaders of the past half-century - was shot dead by the Tamil Tiger rebels.

"Sri Lanka is a beautiful country but the war destroyed everything," she reflects ruefully.

Mrs Amirthalingam is at the place where her husband - who in contrast to the Tamil Tigers advocated a peaceful solution to Sri Lanka's ethnic divisions - was murdered in Colombo in July 1989.

Brutal conflict

Appapillai Amirthalingam was the only Tamil leader ever to become leader of the opposition in Sri Lanka and was the last Tamil politician to command a mass following.


Mrs Amirthalingam met leading members of the Tamil community
Since his death, no other Tamil leader has appealed so strongly to the masses.

The suffering of his widow reflects the suffering of tens of thousands of Sri Lankan war bereaved over the past two decades.

The only difference perhaps is that Mrs Amirthalingam was fortunate enough to flee the ravaged country and live in UK.

She returned to Sri Lanka with her youngest son Bahirathan, to find out what the future holds for the Tamil community after decades of brutal conflict that finally came to end with the defeat of the Tamil Tigers - known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) - in May last year.

They made sure to visit Mr Amirthalingam's loyal security guard, Nissanka Thibbotumunuwa - a Sinhalese national - who killed all three Tamil Tiger assassins on the spot.

It was a highly moving reunion - all three of them were in tears.

"Every time these people came and murdered they managed to escape but Nissanka killed all of them," says Mrs Amirthalingam.

Hidden weapons

The assassins were invited to the house by another Tamil parliamentarian, Yogeswaran, and were to discuss improving ties with the most prominent Tamil political party of the day, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), which was led by Mr Amirthalingam.

They were allowed in without any security - all three had hidden weapons.

As they sat down for tea they killed both Mr Amirthalingam and Yogeswaran.

"He was killed by the Tigers because he supported the Indo-Lanka agreement which he thought was the best solution at the time," Bahirathan Amirthalingam - who is in Sri Lanka for the first time since his father's funeral - tells me.

The accord with India signed in 1987 forced the Tigers and other militant groups to give up arms.

Long before the Tigers began their armed struggle, TULF leaders including Mr Amirthalingam were calling for an independent state for Tamils in the north and east called Tamil Eelam.

But they wanted it through negotiations, not guns.

His stance meant that he was seen as a "stooge" by the Tigers, who wanted to be the "sole representatives" of the Tamils.

This was although many Tamil militant leaders were inspired by Mr Amirthalingam's politics and were initially his followers.

But while the father was promoting peaceful, democratic solutions, both the sons, Kandeepan and Bahirathan, took up arms on behalf of Tamil militant groups not associated with the Tigers.

It was not a secret for the parents.

"My father did not oppose my taking up arms but he did not support targeting civilians," Dr Bahirathan tells me.

"He was a forceful moderate."

Tribute

But not everyone saw it that way. Mr Amirthalingam was accused by some Sinhala groups of grooming and supporting militant groups as a bargaining tool.

A presidential panel that investigated attacks on Tamils in 1977 by Sinhala mobs - widely seen as a key event which triggered the Tamil uprising - accused the TULF of stirring up inter-ethnic animosity by spearheading the campaign for Tamil Eelam.

But it seems that point of view has faded over the years.

When President Rajapaksa marked the anniversary of Mr Amirthalingam's death in 2006, he paid tribute to his "commitment to democracy and the larger unity of the Sri Lankan people".

Like her husband, Mrs Amirthalingam is also a controversial politician.

She was accused of making inflammatory and racist remarks while campaigning for him but was exonerated by an investigating judicial panel.

A quarter of a century later, the widow has strong words against the Tigers.

"If they were fighting for the Tamils, why did they kill my husband? Why did they kill so many moderate politicians?" she asks.

Though revisiting the painful memories is highly emotional, the family say they are happy to be back in Sri Lanka.

"I love my country. Sri Lanka is a beautiful island. I am happy to be here to recollect my memories," Mrs Amirthalingam says.

She insists that the passage of time has meant that she has no intention of seeking revenge.

"I think they lost an opportunity to solve the issue. The LTTE should have negotiated a political settlement with the government while they had power."

Mrs Amirthalingam says the president must now find a solution for Tamils so that they can live in Sri Lanka in dignity and as equal citizens.

"We can't go to any other country. We have our land, language and culture so this must be honoured by the president," she says through the tears.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Sri Lanka among most charitable

Sri Lanka has been ranked eighth among countries who are more prone to charity, a global study has revealed.

The World Giving Index, the largest study ever carried out into charitable behaviour across the globe, which ranked Sri Lanka the eighth most charitable nation, has found that happier people are more likely to give money to charity than those who are wealthy.

The World Giving Index used a Gallup survey on the charitable behaviour of people in 153 countries representing 95 percent of the world’s population. The survey asked people whether they had given money to charity in the last month and to rank how happy they are with life on a scale of one to ten.

For all countries CAF compared the strength of the relationship between giving with both a nation’s GDP and the happiness of its population. CAF found that the link between happiness and giving is stronger than the link between wealth and giving.

The study also measured two other types of charitable behaviour alongside giving money - volunteering time and helping a stranger. The “World Giving Index” combines the levels of each charitable behaviour to produce a ranking of the most charitable nations in the world.

Sri Lanka came eighth on the World Giving Index with 56 percent of the population having donated to charity. Sri Lanka’s happiness score was 4.2

CAF Director of Research Richard Harrison said: “We have always thought of ourselves as a charitable nation and now for the first time we can see how charitable we are compared to the rest of the world.

“Donating money to charity is something that is traditionally seen as being driven by how wealthy a person is. However, it is clear that happiness plays an important role in influencing whether people give.

“The findings suggest a positive cycle where one person gives to charity, the charity improves the happiness of the individuals they support and they in turn are more likely to give.”

Australia and New Zealand topped the “World Giving Index”. Malta was found to be the country with the largest percentage of the population (83 percent) giving money, the people of Turkmenistan are the most generous with their time with 61 percent having given time to charity and Liberia was top of the list for helping a stranger (76 percent).

World Giving Index

First 25 countries


Country Rank Index% %money %time %help score out of 10

Australia 1 57% 70% 38% 64% 7.3
New Zealand 1 57% 68% 41% 63% 7.4
Canada 3 56% 64% 35% 68% 7.5
Ireland 3 56% 72% 35% 60% 7.0
Switzerland 5 55% 71% 34% 60% 7.5
USA 5 55% 60% 39% 65% 7.2
Netherlands 7 54% 77% 39% 46% 7.6
United Kingdom 8 53% 73% 29% 58% 5.6
Sri Lanka 8 53% 58% 52% 50% 4.2
Austria 10 52% 69% 30% 58% 7.2
Lao People's
Democratic
Republic
11 50% 64% 32% 53% 5.0
Sierra Leone 11 50% 29% 45% 75% 3.0
Malta 13 48% 83% 21% 40% 6.3
Iceland 14 47% 67% 26% 47% 6.9
Turkmenistan 14 47% 17% 61% 62% 6.6
Guyana 16 45% 36% 33% 67% 6.0
Qatar 16 45% 64% 18% 53% 6.4
Hong Kong 18 44% 70% 13% 50% 5.1
Germany 18 44% 49% 28% 56% 6.7
Denmark 18 44% 67% 20% 45% 8.0
Guinea 18 44% 28% 42% 61% 4.3
Guatemala 22 43% 46% 33% 51% 6.5
Trinidad and
Tobago
22 43% 45% 25% 60% 6.7
Myanmar 22 43% 36% 40% 52% 5.3
Thailand 25 42% 73% 18% 36% 6.9
Kuwait 25 42% 41% 19% 67% 6.6
Luxembourg 25 42% 58% 28% 41% 7.0
Norway 25 42% 43% 38% 45% 7.6

Last 25 countries
Country Rank Index% %money %time %help score out of 10

France 91 27% 31% 22% 28% 6.3
Singapore 91 27% 35% 10% 35% 6.1
Republic of Congo
(Brazzaville)
91 27% 11% 18% 51% 3.8
Republic of Moldova 100 26% 17% 20% 42% 5.6
Nepal 100 26% 22% 21% 36% 4.9
Georgia 134 19% 5% 15% 37% 3.8
Turkey 134 19% 14% 7% 35% 5.1
India 134 19% 14% 12% 30% 5.1
Vietnam 138 18% 17% 6% 32% 5.3
Montenegro 138 18% 18% 6% 31% 5.2
Russian Federation 138 18% 6% 20% 29% 5.2
Bulgaria 141 17% 18% 3% 30% 3.8
Cambodia 142 16% 34% 2% 13% 4.1
Pakistan 142 16% 20% 8% 20% 5.2
Romania 142 16% 14% 5% 28% 5.4
Rwanda 142 16% 15% 11% 21% 4.0
Bangladesh 146 15% 12% 5% 29% 5.1
China 147 14% 11% 4% 28% 4.5
Lithuania 147 14% 4% 6% 33% 5.5
Greece 147 14% 8% 5% 28% 6.0
Serbia 150 13% 14% 5% 21% 4.8
Ukraine 150 13% 5% 14% 19% 5.2
Burundi 152 12% 9% 7% 21% 3.8
Madagascar 153 12% 6% 11% 18% 4.6

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Police discover Sun Sea’s link to Norway

Stewart Bell

The Bangkok-based human smugglers who have so far sent two shiploads of illegal migrants to Canada have been called “sophisticated” and “well organized.” But nobody ever said they were perfect.

Before the last ship, the MV Sun Sea, left Thailand in July carrying almost 500 Sri Lankan migrants, the smugglers made the passengers sign contracts that spelled out how much each owed for the journey to Canada.

The contracts were then mailed to Norway, ostensibly for safekeeping. They were, after all, valuable receipts. They were proof of millions worth of uncollected debts, not to mention highly sensitive.

The problem was, they were mailed to the wrong address.

According to newly released details of the case, the contracts — in which Sun Sea passengers pledged to pay the smugglers between $5,000 and $30,000 upon reaching Canada — were mislabelled and delivered to the wrong person.

The recipient handed them to Norwegian police, who passed them on to their Canadian counterparts. The gaffe has given Canadian officials a unique insight into the smugglers’ system of payment, which involved an up-front deposit of about $5,000 and a hefty debt that was to be paid off after arrival in Canada. It has also linked the smuggling operation to Norway.

The Norwegian connection and the blunder that brought it to light are described in a transcript of an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing held in Vancouver on April 7. A declassified copy of the transcript was recently released to the National Post.

“Now, these are a series of payment contracts signed by various individuals who ended up travelling on the MV Sun Sea,” Kenny Nicolaou, a Canada Border Services Agency representative, explained at the hearing.

“You can see the general tenor of the contract. Essentially it says, ‘I paid this much up front, depending on the situation, and I owe this much, who this family member in Canada pledges to pay on my behalf once I arrive.”

Mr. Nicolaou said the Sun Sea’s arrival in Canada was “the end result of a sophisticated, well organized, for profit human smuggling operation orchestrated by a network of agents in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.”

Boarding began in April 2010 and occurred in “continuing waves” until the ship sailed for Canada on July 5. An “intricate network of agents” organized the effort, he said. “It was well organized and it was designed to generate large sums of money.”

The Sun Sea arrived off the British Columbia coast last August carrying 492 Sri Lankan migrants who had contracted smugglers to ferry them from Thailand. All have made refugee claims. The Canadian government has spent more than $25-million so far dealing with the ship.

In all likelihood, Canadian authorities already knew about the Sun Sea by the time the contracts were intercepted. But the package would have given them advance notice about who was on board, how much they had paid and how much they still owed the smuggling syndicate.

The CBSA raised the Norwegian matter at the hearing of a Sun Sea migrant whom the government alleges was involved in the smuggling operation. The man’s lawyer downplayed the significance of the documents, saying “there is no credible evidence before the board to say that these are the contracts that the people on board the Sun Sea were a party to.”

The IRB has sealed all the exhibits related to the Sun Sea refugee cases.

The RCMP is investigating the suspected organizers of the Sun Sea and Ocean Lady, the ship that smuggled 76 Sri Lankan migrants to Canada in 2009. To date, the IRB has ruled that four of the Sun Sea migrants were members of the Tamil Tigers rebel group.

The intended recipient of the contracts was not identified in the transcript but Norway has a large Sri Lankan population and is the base of the Nediyavan faction of the Tamil Tigers. The head of the Nediyavan group, Perinpanayagam Sivaparam, was arrested in Olso last month.

Dutch police reportedly want to question him about an alleged Tamil Tigers fundraising network that has been extorting money from ethnic Tamils in the Netherlands. The Dutch authorities arrested seven suspects in April.

The European case is similar to the RCMP’s recent investigation of the World Tamil Movement, a Toronto-based rebel front group that raised millions to support the Tamil Tigers until the federal government banned it in 2008, shut it down and seized its assets.

National Post
sbell@nationalpost.com

Security issues may keep Tamils in detention

BY DOUGLAS QUAN, POSTMEDIA NEWS



VANCOUVER -- Ever since a shipload of Tamil migrants arrived in Canada on Aug. 13, the government has argued for their continued detention on the basis that their identities have not been verified.

But as a third round of detention hearings gets underway on Wednesday, lawyers for the migrants say they won't be surprised if the government starts making a new argument: that some of the migrants should be held because they pose a possible security threat.

If that happens, it'll bring a new level of complexity to the hearings, experts say, putting Immigration and Refugee Board adjudicators into the difficult position of having to weigh the migrants' rights to liberty with protecting the country.

"They're in a bit of a tough spot," said Gregory James, a Toronto-based immigration lawyer.

When the cargo ship MV Sun Sea arrived on B.C.'s coast last month with 492 men, women and children aboard, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews stated publicly that the ship included "suspected human smugglers and terrorists" belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist group that battled the Sri Lankan government for 25 years and whose members are banned from entering Canada.

And Rohan Gunaratna, who has consulted for the Canadian government and is a professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, was quoted widely in media reports saying the captain of the Sun Sea was a Tamil Tiger.

But so far, officials with the Canada Border Services Agency are keeping mum about what evidence, if any, they have to support those claims.

"The CBSA is exercising due diligence in the screening of all irregular migrants for both security and criminal threats. This is an ongoing investigation and the CBSA cannot comment at this time," said spokeswoman Esme Bailey in an e-mail.

One of the migrants' lawyers, Douglas Cannon, who says Toews' comments amounted to "fear mongering," says he is anxious to learn what the government knows.

"If you have evidence, come out with it," he said.

Larry Smeets, another migrant lawyer, says, based on Toews' remarks, he has warned his clients that they could remain in detention even after their identities have been verified.

"I expect that's what's going to happen," he said.

Last October, 76 Tamil migrants showed up on the B.C. coast aboard another vessel, the Ocean Lady. Official transcripts from the detention hearings of those migrants offer some insight into what could be in store for the current group of migrants.

Initially, the 76 migrants - all men - were held on the grounds that their identities still needed to be verified. But after a couple of weeks, the government started making the case that the migrants were potential security threats.

Government lawyers said traces of explosives had been found on the Ocean Lady and on the personal belongings of a few of the migrants.

They said the ship's name had been deliberately disguised and that its true name was the MV Princess Easwary.

They cited testimony from Gunaratna, who asserted that, based on information from a terrorism database he maintains and confidential sources, the ship was owned by the Tamil Tigers.

Immigration and Refugee Board adjudicators sided with the government in those early days, and agreed to continue holding the migrants on security grounds.

However, one adjudicator, Leeann King, acknowledged during one hearing that she had an "extremely difficult" time making her decision.

"This section of the (Immigration and Refugee Protection) Act was passed in the aftermath of September 11th, 2001, and has been seen very rarely by members of this division in this region," she said.

"I don't have much guidance."

But by December, adjudicators were starting to become impatient with the government and started ordering the releases of migrants.

In one particularly tense hearing, adjudicator Otto Nupponen said flatly that "there is nothing whatsoever" that would tie the migrant in question with the Tamil Tigers and that any further steps the government took to inquire into his background would likely amount to "a fishing expedition."

He raised questions about the credibility and impartiality of the government's witness, Gunaratna, pointing out that he had close ties to the Sri Lankan government and that he had even helped the president write his memoirs.

"There is more than just a slight basic apprehension of bias," Nupponen said.

On the discovery of trace amounts of explosives, Nupponen said the government could keep swabbing the ship, but "one once again needs to question what the purpose of that really would be and if there are further hits, what then? What is that supposed to mean?"

Government lawyers appealed to the Federal Court to stay the releases and even called for top-secret hearings so that they could share in more detail some of the security concerns they had with respect to 25 of the migrants.

But just as those hearings were set to begin in January, the government called off the hearings. Instead, it consented to the release of all the migrants under a host of conditions, including that the migrants report to Canada Border Services Agency officials on a weekly basis and that they not associate with members of any criminal organizations or anyone who supports foreign or domestic terrorism.

"Over time, the longer you keep someone in detention, the harder it is to justify," said James, the immigration lawyer.

Factbox:

The government can detain foreign nationals if it has reasonable grounds to believe they:

- are unlikely to appear for an examination, hearing or removal

- are a danger to the public

- are inadmissible for security reasons or for violating human or international rights

- have not established their identity


Refugees spark racism row

An opinion poll last month indicated that a majority of Canadians wanted the Tamils to be sent back.

"Why such rage directed at such a minuscule group?" asked columnist Stephen Hume in the Vancouver Sun. "Perhaps it's because they aren't white ... How we respond to a few Tamils seeking safety and a future for their children says far more about us than it does about them. And what it says so far is rather distasteful."

This provoked a furious reaction. "Gee, could it be that we are sick of being played for Patsies?" was one of the milder responses from readers. "You might sing a different song if your community was flooded with Hindus, Vietnamese, etc who brought such worthy skills with them as drive-by shootings, drug wars, murder of their own wives and daughters," read another.

Views from Canada

By EZRA LEVANT, QMI AGENCY

Great news: There is a country in Asia willing to take Sri Lankan Tamil refugees by the thousand — with the United Nations' seal of approval.

And they're already doing it. In the first six months of 2010, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says the generous country accepted 1,857 Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka, who had been staying temporarily in India.

UN refugee spokesman Michael Zwack says these Tamils are now "rebuilding their lives." The UN quoted one Tamil refugee, a 39-year-old woman, who said she was pleased with her new home for a pretty good reason: "Peace."

So where is this wonderful place that Sri Lankan refugees are going to by the thousand?

Sri Lanka.

That's right. Thousands of Tamil refugees are returning to Sri Lanka — because it's safe. Within Sri Lanka itself, internal refugee camps for displaced Tamils are winding down, as Tamils go back home.

For example, the Menik Farm refugee camp in Sri Lanka once had 228,000 Tamils in it. It's down to less than 35,000 now, with 3,000 people going home every week.

It's an amazing success story, and it's because the 30-year civil war with the Tamil Tigers terrorist group is over. The terrorists lost. The war ended last spring. Everyone can go home.

Including the 492 gatecrashers who showed up on Vancouver Island last month.

This isn't Sri Lankan government propaganda. It's Tamil refugees telling the story, not with words but with deeds. They're leaving some of the friendliest places on earth to go home.

For example, the 1,857 refugees mentioned above had been staying in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It's a huge state, with more than 66 million people, overwhelmingly Tamil, as its name implies. Even from that Tamil paradise, Tamil refugees are going home to Sri Lanka.

We already knew 71% of Tamil refugees in Canada go home to Sri Lanka for holidays, too, according to a survey done by Canadian immigration officials, and reported by QMI Agency.

Question: If thousands of Tamil refugees from around the world are going home to Sri Lanka, and 71% of Canadian Tamil refugees go back there for holidays, why are we still going through the motions with the 492 Tamils on Vancouver Island, as if they are legitimate? And why are more Tamil ships steaming our way?

That's easy. Criminal smugglers made an estimated $20 million profit from the voyage. Why wouldn't they keep doing it?

Canadian immigration lawyers love it. It's lucrative work — they're paid by legal aid. Which is another way of saying "paid by your taxes."

Politicians love it. With more than 200,000 Tamils living in Toronto, there are plenty of votes to be had by pandering.

And liberal, white journalists love it, because it's a chance to prove how sensitive they are, to polish their politically correct credentials.

That just leaves the rest of us — chumps paying the bills, and watching helplessly while 492 queue-jumpers butt in to the front of the line. Not just queue-jumpers, but queue-jumpers fleeing a "peaceful"place.

So are we going to change our laws to keep out these shysters, like Australia has done? Or is being the world's sucker the new Canadian identity?

Read Ezra Levant's blog @ ezralevant.com


Jason Kenney, the federal Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism

There are several of these [human smuggling] syndicates actually competing with each other for this business. They were involved in the arms trade in the Sri Lankan civil war, but since the cessation of hostilities have sought a new business line, a new commodity to smuggle, and that is human beings ... They are charging people on average about $50,000 to be smuggled to Canada in the most dangerous and worst way possible – in dangerous vessels that either have been decommissioned or should be.

This poses a serious challenge to the integrity and fairness and public support for Canada’s immigration system and our refugee protection system in particular. Since the arrival of the last vessel, there’s been a very significant drop-off in the general public support for immigration, and public support for refugee protection in particular. That’s something we need to be responsive to. Our security partners in Australia, for example, tell me they believe the syndicates targeting Canada have the logistical capability to deliver several large steel-hold vessels a year, each with hundreds of passengers ... Imagine this happening every month or every other month. That would fundamentally undermine public confidence and support for Canada’s generous approach to immigration and refugee protection – which is one of the reasons we need to take action to deter the smuggling networks and disincentivize their potential customers from buying the package to come to Canada ...

The public is pretty clear in their condemnation of this ... They want an immigration system that’s characterized by the principle of the rule of law and fairness, and they see this as a violation of those principles. And that feeling is strongest among new Canadians, in all of our research.

Some 60 per cent of Canadians have said we should prevent the boats from entering our territorial waters in the first place – which implies the use of force and the risk to human life, and that’s a risk we are not prepared to assume.

Over 50 per cent of Canadians in polling have said that those from these vessels who are deemed to be bona fide refugees should be deported back to their country of origin ...

We have decided instead to produce a balanced package which recognizes and upholds our international and domestic legal obligations – the essential obligation under the UN conventions for refugees and torture is an obligation of non-refoulement – that is to say, if someone has a well-founded fear of persecution, a risk to their life, a risk of torture, you can’t send them back to the country that they fear. And the package we propose would not do so ...

I believe that these migrants have mixed motives for coming to Canada: some are primarily economic migrants, some may well be bona-fide refugees ... and some of them have a mix of economic and political reasons ... I should say contextually, that since the cessation of hostilities in Sri Lanka, some 100,000 Sri Lankan refugees living in Tamil Nadu, India, have since voluntarily returned to Sri Lanka. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has facilitated the voluntary return of many Sri Lankans living with temporary status in southeast Asian nations. The Canadian Border Services Agency has done a survey which indicated that a majority of successful Tamil asylum seekers in Canada have subsequently returned, at least for visits, to the country where they allegedly feared persecution ...


Source: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada

dquan@canwest.com

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