The Canada Border Services Agency report, marked “secret,” raises the possibility the ship’s entire journey to Canada might have been financed and organized by the terrorist group to help settle surviving militants abroad following its crushing military defeat by the Sri Lankan government last year.
“Movement of a large number of high-value combatants and intelligence officers aboard Ocean Lady may be part of an effort by surviving members of the group to reconstitute from a base of operations overseas in order to renew resistance to . . . Sri Lanka,” said the report, obtained by the Vancouver Sun through the Access to Information Act.
But Vancouver lawyer Douglas Cannon, who represents one of the migrants, asked why, if so many of the men really are dangerous terrorists, border officials agreed to release all of them from detention earlier this year.
“These are serious allegations, but they don’t seem to have been dealt with very seriously by the authorities,” said Cannon. “If you’re going to cry wolf, you better be prepared to prove it.”
The Ocean Lady — a name spray-painted on a ship registered as the Easwary — arrived in B.C. on Oct. 16.
All 76 people aboard claimed refugee status.
News reports at the time suggested at least one or two of the migrants aboard might have been members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. But the border report said that the former militants, most of them middle-ranked fighters, could use Canada as a major base of operations in the future.
“If these men chose to work in unison they could easily form a formidable LTTE presence in Canada,” it said. “If the overseas wing’s intention is to regroup what is left of its Sri Lanka-based operation in Canada . . . these men clearly have the requisite abilities and experience required to move that process along.”
According to the report, border officials’ suspicions about the migrants were first raised during initial processing, when several migrants joked with each other about the kinds of questions the border guards asked them.
“This type of behaviour is rarely encountered in refugee processing and is more commonly encountered when dealing with members of organized crime groups,” the report stated.
Border guards suspected the ship once formed part of the Tamil Tiger’s merchant marine unit and had probably been used to smuggle narcotics and weapons.
“This may explain why a number of the migrants’ clothes tested positive for such substances as heroin and cocaine,” the report said.
The report said the Tamil Tigers are known for providing a kind of welfare system for its fighters, providing them with post-combat benefits to help secure their loyalty.
“Free passage to a refugee receiving country is exactly the kind of material benefit the group extended to its fighters in return for unquestioning loyalty to the movement,” the report said.
The number of people on board the ship also raises suspicion, according to the report.
“Unlike migrant boats interdicted off Indonesia and Australia the . . . Easwary was not filled to capacity,” it said. “If this voyage was solely about profit, it is perplexing that it sailed with only 76 people on board.”
Even if the former militants want to make a fresh start in Canada, the report stated, they may find that difficult and fall into a life of crime.
“Of the 25 men alleged to be members (of the Tamil Tigers) none had significant work or education histories,” said the report. “It may be a challenge for men who occupied positions of authority in a group that held an entire country in its grip to start over in their 30s and work in low-wage employment in Canada.”
Cannon said while the border agency’s terrorist allegations are worrisome, the agency’s actions suggest otherwise.
Border officials argued for the continued detention of those migrants it suspected of being Tamil Tigers for three months and even made arrangements to present secret evidence to the Immigration and Refugee Board about why the men posed a danger to the public.
However, when the date for the secret hearings finally arrived in January, the border agency suddenly withdrew its application and agreed to release all the men.
“Suspicion is one thing, but being able to prove it is another,” said Cannon.
Officials from the Canada Border Services Agency refused to comment on the report.
In addition to its terrorism allegations, the report also contains details about the conditions on board the ship.
“The CBSA boarding team did not detect a great deal of evidence to suggest that the voyage was particularly uncomfortable,” it said.
Each migrant had a clean bed and sleeping mat and three men acted as cooks, using up a large store of food on board, including live chickens, according to the report.
“Corrections Canada reported that they received numerous complaints about the diet at the holding facility and that some had commented that they ate better on board the Easwary,” the report said.
The ship also had one room with a TV and DVD player for watching movies.
According to the report, one man tried to play Tamil Tiger propaganda videos, but the ship’s captain told him to stop.
“As a result the entertainment was confined to a selection of mainstream theatrical releases like Terminator, the Terrorist Next Door and Escape from Witch Mountain,” it said.
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