Canada, U.S. silent on migrant ship sighting

Federal officials are refusing to answer questions about the sighting of a Thai ship approaching the coast of British Columbia with more than 200 Sri Lankan migrants aboard.

Sri Lankan officials say some of the people aboard the MV Sun Sea may belong to the Tamil Tigers, an insurgent group the Canadian government considers a terrorist organization.

After outlining Canada’s approach to dealing with migrant vessels, including “stopping illegal migrant-smuggling ships that are destined for Canada at their points of departure” and prosecuting those responsible, Foreign Affairs Department spokesman Alain Cacchione would only say that “Canada is aware of press reports suggesting that a vessel has departed South East Asian waters and may be destined for Canada.”

“This is the only information available at this point in time,” Cacchione said in an email.

Officials in the United States have taken a similar approach.

U.S. Coast Guard officials told CBC News on Saturday a law enforcement file has been opened, so they cannot speak about it.

However, on Friday a spokesman with the U.S. Coast Guard’s Pacific division told the Globe and Mail that a sighting of the MV Sun Sea had been confirmed.

“All I can say is that it is carrying the Thai flag and it is believed to be travelling towards British Columbia,” Adam Stanton said.

According to news reports in Asia, the cargo ship has been tracked since May when it made an unsuccessful attempt to land in Australia.

The Canadian government is still dealing with the most recent shipload of Tamil migrants, who arrived in British Columbia last October.

The 76 people, who are still having their claims processed, were released from detention after an investigation showed none were linked to a terrorist organization.

However, a lawyer who represented some of those people said Saturday he’s both surprised and concerned about the amount of information that has already been made public.

“I don’t understand why this is being released to the media,” Douglas Cannon told CBC News. “It is undoubtedly from intelligence sources and intelligence sources are usually pretty careful about the information that they have.

“However, it concerns me that there may be some effort to publicize possibly a new strategy to deal with refugee claimants who come aboard ship. That concerns me because it would be contrary to international law to turn someone back who claims a risk of being sent back.” – (CBC News)