And it's not the Stephen Harper government saying that. It's the United Nations.
In a series of recent reports and statements, the United Nations Refugee Agency acknowledged the situation in Sri Lanka has " greatly improved" with the end of the government's 26-year-long civil war with Tamil Tiger separatists last year.
With a semblance of stability returning, the UN reports that thousands of refugees are returning home from both outside the country and from internal displacement camps.
"The security situation had significantly stabilized, paving the way for a lasting solution for hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons [IDPs]) in the country's north and east," the UN reported last month, noting 280,000 displaced people are being resettled.
"Many of the initial restrictions on the freedom of movements of IDPs have been lifted," the agency said.
In stark contrast, the Tamil migrants who arrived in B.C. on Aug. 13 said they were fleeing "widespread occurrences of disappearances, mass murders and extortion" and that "displaced civilians have not resettled in their own homes."
Not according to the UN.
"Tens of thousands of internally displaced people are returning to their homes in the north, and it seems that some refugees abroad are also opting to return," the UN Refugee Agency reported on the same day the migrants arrived here. Nearly 2,000 refugees left India to return home during the first six months of this year, the agency reported.
That doesn't mean people aren't still being persecuted in Sri Lanka, however. The UN warns some human-rights activists, journalists, gay and lesbian people, and women and children are still potentially at risk as the country continues to stabilize.
But, in a very significant move, the UN said Tamils leaving Sri Lanka should no longer be automatically presumed to be refugees, and that asylum claims should be considered strictly on individual merit.
The UN notes that former members of the Tamil Tigers -- a banned terrorist organization in Canada -- should be reviewed for possible war crimes including "abductions and disappearances, indiscriminate attacks on civilians, use of human shields and forced recruitment for military services and/or labour, including recruitment of children." The Tigers are also involved in the smuggling of weapons and humans, the UN said.
The UN warns: "Regular contributions of large sums of money, with the knowledge that those funds will be used to commit serious crimes, may also be an independent basis for exclusion [from refugee status.]"
Given reports that migrants paid up to $50,000 each to human smugglers connected to the Tamil Tigers, it would be irresponsible for the government to ignore the UN's advice.
Yet critics have slammed the Conservatives' "anti-migrant rhetoric" while demanding more compassion for arriving Tamils -- all while the United Nations was congratulating the Canadian government for handling the case properly.
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