Lankan asylum-seekers must stay in jail, Canada says
August 24, 2010 09:49 am
More than 400 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who arrived in
The Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board agreed with government requests for more time to check the migrants’ identity papers.
Government officials want to establish whether any are militants from the
Tamil Tigers, a group banned in
Some 49 children arrived with the group, but they have not been detained.
Government officials said the children were either in jails with their mothers, or in the care of social services care if they had arrived unaccompanied.
Under Canadian law, asylum seekers held in custody are allowed periodic detention hearings.
The Sri Lankan Tamils arrived in Canadian waters aboard the MV Sun Sea on 13
August. They had reportedly spent 90 days travelling from
One migrant died during the voyage. It was the second boat carrying Tamil
migrants to arrive in