Migrant was in Tamil Tiger compound to avoid combat, IRB hears

One of the migrants who came to Canada last summer aboard the MV Sun Sea worked for two years inside a Tamil Tiger compound not because he wanted to help the terrorist organization but to avoid being forced into combat, the Immigration and Refugee Board heard Tuesday.

In fact, prior to entering the compound, the man spent six months hiding in the jungles to avoid being recruited, the man's parents testified by phone from Sri Lanka.

But a representative for the Canada Border Services Agency, which is seeking the man's deportation, said Tuesday that even though the man never faced battle, his work as a storekeeper inside the compound still benefited Tamil Tiger soldiers and therefore constitutes membership within the banned organization.

The IRB adjudicator said she needed to review the evidence before making a decision on whether he can stay in Canada.

This was the fifth admissibility hearing to be held since the arrival last August of 492 refugee-seeking Tamils aboard the Sun Sea cargo ship. The Canada Border Services Agency is seeking the removal of about 40 of the migrants on the grounds that they were members of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or had committed war crimes or other serious crimes.

So far, two have been ordered deported, one was allowed to proceed with his refugee claim, and another decision is pending.

In a rare move, Catalin Mitelut, the lawyer representing the migrant at Tuesday's hearing, called the man's parents as witnesses.

The mother testified that LTTE recruiters had come to the family home several times looking for her son.

"They want him to join but we did not let him go," his mother said through an interpreter. "He was hiding in the forest for six months."

On one occasion, the recruiters even took the mother into custody for three days — but the family still refused to disclose his whereabouts.

Finally, a relative arranged to have him work inside the compound because he couldn't hide forever, the mother said.

Mitelut argued that his client was a "vulnerable" young man who had fallen "victim" to the LTTE's terrorist activities, which included extortion, abduction and forcible recruitment.

He stressed that there was no evidence to link his client's work at the food store to any violent acts carried out by the Tigers.

In an interview after his arrival in Canada, the man told investigators, "I held on to that job to be in hiding," the board heard.

Carla Medley, the CBSA representative, told the board that one doesn't have to be a combatant in order to be a member of a terrorist group.

The store the man worked at supplied food to LTTE fighters, Medley said. She added that the store was located within a compound not accessible to the general public and surrounded by barbed wire.

"He made a choice," she argued, to take on a non-combatant role within the organization.