By Petti Fong | The Star
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Their daily water ration of a quarter litre per person never changed during the months at sea, which gave them hope that their journey was organized and the Sun Sea was well-stocked.
“We made tea with rainwater and we used salt water to bathe,” said one of the women, now in detention in Burnaby. “The water was not clean. We have lots of scratches from bathing in sea water.”
The women and children were in the top and upper decks of the vessel and slept in tents; the men slept in hammocks below. When the weather turned bad, as it did frequently during the voyage, everyone had to move inside the ship, according to the woman, who spoke through an interpreter.
Most of the passengers were often seasick.
Despite the cramped quarters, there was no fighting between the passengers. Everyone, she said, just wanted to arrive safely.
One week after she and the other 491 men, women and children aboard the Sun Sea arrived under escort at CFB Esquimalt, detention review hearings were held throughout the Vancouver area as each migrant learned whether he or she must remain in secure facilities.
Forty-four children and 25 women are being held at the Burnaby detention centre. A minor who arrived without a parent is being cared for by an adult migrant.
All 492 migrants were ordered held for another week as Canadian Border Services agents and Immigration and Refugee Board members verified their identities.
The Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has said all the migrants — some of whom he identified were terrorists and or human smugglers and traffickers — are making refugee claims.
In a letter to the Star, some of the women pleaded to be allowed to stay: “We are not terrorists. If you think we are terrorists, please consider this: Can the children, pregnant women and seniors who came with us be terrorists? No.”
Speaking from the detention centre, the women said they had lived in prosperity in their native land but were forced to move by the Sri Lankan army at loss of property and lives. Under a publication ban imposed by the Immigration and Refugee Board, neither the women nor their villages can be identified.
Some described having to leave wounded family members to die because they couldn’t reach them in the unending rocket launches and gunfire.
“We cannot write our deep sorrow and anguish,” said the women.
In a new poll by Angus Reid Global Monitor, nearly half of respondents believe the Tamil migrants who arrived Aug. 13 should be deported.
The online survey of just over 1,000 Canadians, which has a margin of error 19 times out of 20, found that 48 per cent of those polled would deport the passengers from the Sun Sea. That’s even if the refugee claims are found to be legitimate and there is no discernible link between the migrant and a terrorist organization. Thirty-five per cent of those surveyed would allow them to stay in Canada as refugees if their claims are found legitimate.
Three in five Canadians believe the ship should have been turned back and not allowed to reach the country and more than 70 per cent of Canadians believe more ships will arrive in the next few months.
The migrants who arrived on board the Sun Sea must remain in detention for a week when the next mandatory review by the IRB begins Aug. 24.
Last October, 76 migrants claiming to be Tamil refugees arrived in B.C. on board the Ocean Lady. Following their second round of detention reviews, some were released. Eventually all were released and most are in Toronto waiting for their refugee claims to be processed.
The RCMP say the investigation is continuing into the alleged smugglers who organized the Ocean Lady’s voyage but no arrests have been made. A new investigation into the alleged smugglers for the Sun Sea is in its preliminary stage.
© The Star
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