Sri Lanka wants Canada to share intelligence information - report

Sri Lanka is requesting Canada to share intelligence information on refugees if Canada wants to curb the people smuggling to its shores, a Canadian media report said today.

The Globe and Mail reported that Sri Lanka's High Commissioner in Ottawa Chitranganee Wagiswara as saying in an interview on Monday that there have been "unofficial discussions" with Canadian authorities on the subject recently, but that more could be done between the two countries.
"There is no deal at the moment, I think exchange of information, and intelligence is the key," Ms. Wagiswara has been quoted.
The High Commissioner has said that a deal similar to the one Sri Lanka reached with Australia last November to improve the flow of information between the two countries that could aid in curbing the refugee influx to Canada.
The Globe and Mail report said that Canadian officials refused to respond publicly to the Sri Lankan proposal.
"Discussions we might or might not be having with Sri Lanka on the issue are privileged, and as such, details about the issue are not something we would make public," Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Laura Markle has been quoted as saying.
Canada is being seen as an easy target for the people smugglers due to its lax immigration laws after Australia tightened its immigration laws recently by imposing a suspension of asylum claims from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
Sri Lankan authorities dispute the claims by the Tamil migrants that they are fleeing persecution by the Sinhala government and say they are economic refugees taking advantage of Canada's immigration policies.
Citing military sources, the Sri Lankan daily, The Island said that almost all the passengers of the Thai cargo ship had left Sri Lanka years ago and most probably were not involved in LTTE terrorism.
A recent UNHCR report said the security situation in Northern Sri Lanka has greatly improved and increasing numbers of Sri Lankan refugees are returning home from India.
The welfare camps in Manik Farm village of Vavuniya which sheltered 280,000 Internally Displaced Persons at the end of the war in May 2009, now house only about 35,000 displaced people, it said.
The Sri Lankan government has embarked on a massive development program in the North to uplift the livelihoods of the Tamil people affected by the war.