UNHCR commends Canada for its reception to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees

The United Nations humanitarian agency, UNHCR has commended Canada for its reception given to the 492 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees arrived in British Columbia's Vancouver Island last Friday aboard the Thai cargo ship MV Sun Sea.

The UNHCR said it commends the exemplary work of the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) in coordinating the arrival and reception of the MV Sun Sea passengers.
Addressing media in Geneva the UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic said the reception site was well designed, and needs in terms of information gathering, food and water have been well anticipated.
The priorities for safe disembarkation of the ship were clearly defined with medical needs topping the list for those on board, who include men, women and children, he added.
Mahecic said the UNHCR supports the work by law enforcement agencies to combat the human smuggling but it is important to recognize that the refugees are a distinct group with critical protection needs although they use the same means of transportation as migrants.

"It is not a crime to seek asylum," the spokesman told the reporters.

He said the UNHCR will be closely following the processing of people from MV Sun Sea on an ad-hoc basis to help compliance with the relevant provisions for treatment of persons seeking asylum and refugee status.

UNHCR recently issuing revised guidelines to assist decision-makers in reviewing claims from Sri Lankan asylum seekers recommended that those claims should be considered on their individual merits rather than on a group basis as the security situation has considerably improved in the country since the end of Sri Lanka's conflict in May 2009.

In a recent report the UNHCR said about 1,000 refugees have returned to Sri Lanka from Indian refugee camps as the conditions have become better in Sri Lanka's North.

UNHCR report said there are only 35,000 displaced people are remaining in the welfare camps and the government of Sri Lanka is resettling 3,000 IDPs every week.

Sri Lankan authorities say the migrants are economic refugees spreading the false pretense that they are being persecuted by the Sinhala majority government are taking advantage of Canada's relaxed immigration laws.