Sri Lankan migrant ordered deported after admitting membership in Tamil Tigers
Posted Mar 8, 2011 07:25:24 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER _ The first of nearly 600 migrants who arrived on British Columbia shores aboard two cargo ships over the past two years has been ordered deported from Canada, after admitting he was a member of the Tamil Tigers.
An adjudicator from the Immigration and Refugee Board made the ruling Tuesday, citing the fact that the man fought in at least one battle for the banned terrorist organization during seven years as a member.
Michael McPhalen said it wasn’t necessary for the Canada Border Services Agency to prove the man committed serious crimes with the Tamil Tigers, only that he was a member.
“I consider it significant that you never made any attempts to leave until 1996, and when they caught you you were not beaten or threatened,” McPhalen said.
The man, whose identity is banned from publication, stared straight ahead with no expression as he heard the decision.
His lawyer said he’ll confer with his client to decide if he’ll apply for a judicial review of the decision by the federal court, but he has no option to appeal.
The man is one of 32 from among the 492 people who arrived aboard the MV Sun Sea last August who border officials allege participated in terrorism, human smuggling or war crimes.
During the hearing, a lawyer for the federal Public Safety Ministry said the man was shot in a fight against a Sri Lankan navy ship, which ultimately succeeded in securing weapons for the group.
He underwent a year of initial training with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, including learning how to shoot a rifle, before being recruited to the naval wing of the group called the Sea Tigers, Carla Medley said at the hearing.
“His activities were not marginal or minimal,” said Medley, who argued the man should be inadmissible to Canada because he’s a national security threat. “Rather, he joined the organization and received extensive training.”
The man made his admissions to agency officials during two interviews last fall.
While his lawyer didn’t contest the information, he told the hearing his client only joined the rebel group “by accident” as a teen tagging along with his friends.
Robin Bajer said the man expressed desire to leave the Tigers but was told by superiors he wasn’t allowed. When he tried to “escape,” Bajer said he was caught and punished with manual labour.
He did finally leave the organization.
Simple membership in the organization over a period of time is all that’s required to be inadmissible to Canada, Medley told the board, but she did note that the time of the man’s membership was during the “height of (the Tigers’) terrorist campaign.”
About 86 of the migrants remain in the B.C. detention centre, and immigration lawyers contend the government has fought tooth-and-nail to keep the migrants in custody.
The only other man to face an inadmissibility hearing on security grounds so far was ordered released by the immigration board on Monday, after the adjudicator ruled he was a civilian who came into “inescapable” interaction with the Tigers as a fact of life during civil war. That man briefly worked for a Tiger-owned garage but was able to prove he never joined the group.
In his decision, member Marc Tessler said taking too broad a definition of membership would catch everyone from the person who sold soda to soldiers to nurses in a Tiger-created hospital.
