RCMP vessels head for Tamil migrant ship
Thu Aug 12, 10:44 AM
ST..JOHNS (CBC) - A flotilla of 10 boats, including three RCMP vessels, left the B.C. coast on Thursday morning headed for a Thai cargo ship with an estimated 200 Tamil migrants on board.
The MV Sun Sea entered Canada's exclusive economic zone which extends 200 nautical miles, or about 370 kilometres on Wednesday.
The cargo ship is thought to be carrying between 200 and 500 Tamil migrants from Sri Lanka.
It is not clear when the ship might arrive inside Canadian territorial waters which extend about 12 nautical miles (or 22 kilometres) off the coast but officials had said the vessel would arrive by early Friday at the latest.
It's expected to dock at Vancouver Island, likely in the Victoria area.
Officials have said there is reason to believe members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, known as the Tamil Tigers, are on the ship. The Tamil Tigers have been outlawed in Canada as a terrorist group since 2006.
The migrants will likely be taken to two correctional facilities in Maple Ridge, east of Vancouver. Any children on board will likely be put into the care of B.C.'s Ministry of Children and Family Development.
Last October, another ship, the Ocean Lady, was intercepted in Canadian waters off B.C. after crossing the Pacific from Sri Lanka. The group on board claimed to be fleeing persecution.
The government expressed concerns that some on board had links to the Tamil Tigers, but the 76 Sri Lankan migrants from that ship have since been released and their refugee claims will be processed over the next two years.
Sri Lanka has been battered by decades of civil war between the Tamil Tigers and the government.
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