Lankan asylum seekers placed under detention in Canada

VANCOUVER -- Canada's Immigration Review Board member Leeann King has ordered the continued detention of 76 Sri Lankan men found on a boat off the coast of Vancouver Island.
The order followed a report by a representative for Canada's immingration minister who said they haven't had time to complete their examination of the migrants and details around their arrival here are sketchy.
"I'm satisfied if they were released at this current time with no alternatives to detention they would have no motivation to appear for further examination in the minister's timeframe," King said Tuesday.
King also ruled Tuesday the detention hearings for two of 76 Sri Lankan migrants who arrived in B.C. by boat will be open to the public.
However, she has ordered a publication ban on any information that may identify the men or their families. The two men are asserting a refugee claim in Canada.
The media was only allowed to hear this detention review. It will have to apply to have the hearings for the other 74 migrants open to the public.
Lawyers representing the two Sri Lankan men detained by Canada Border Services had opposed a media request to open the detention hearings to the public, saying their clients fear their families will be tortured or killed if they are identified.
Immigration lawyer Larry Smeets said while he supports the media request in principle, he must oppose it. One of his clients has already had family members killed and is worried more retribution will occur, he said.
He argued his clients are worried their life, liberty and security are at risk if the hearings are open.
"In our view private proceedings are necessary," he said.
"One of these men is really concerned his life, liberty and security will be endangered."
But King said the privacy issue could be addressed by issuing a publication ban.
The two men are among 76 asylum-seekers, believed to be from Sri Lanka, taken into custody by the Canada Border Services Agency, after their ship, Ocean Lady, was apprehended off Vancouver Island on Friday.
Four media outlets applied to open to the public the 48-hour detention hearings for the 76 migrants, arguing a prohibition ban violates press freedom.
The application was heard in a teleconference.
The hearing will continue Wednesday.
Also Tuesday, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney signalled there should be no rush to unconditionally embrace as refugees the 76 migrants.
Kenney said he views the case as one of human smuggling, something Canada and other countries must try to combat.
"We obviously don't want to encourage people to get into rickety boats, pay thousands of dollars, cross the oceans and come to Canada illegally," Kenney said Tuesday in an interview.
The Canadian Tamil Congress made a public plea Tuesday for fair and legal process for the 76 asylum-seekers.
The 76 men are believed to be Tamils from Sri Lanka, and are being held by the Canada Border Services Agency while they await reviews and hearings.
"These people have not had full access to legal counsel," said Gary Anandasangaree, a Toronto-based lawyer working for the CTC.
"They should have access to fair process."
Anandasangaree said he has not been able to see or speak to any of the 76 men, but he provided a bleak description of the conditions in Sri Lanka from which he believes the men are trying to escape. He described jail-like camps where 300,000 Tamils are held in close quarters, some without access to clean water or proper meals. He said rape is a regular occurrence in the camps and flooding happens frequently during monsoon season.
"The conditions for Tamils have gone from bad to worse," he said.
"If these people go back [to Sri Lanka], they would most certainly face torture, if not death or disappearance."
Roy Ratnavel fled Sri Lanka 21 years ago, landing in Canada as a 19-year-old refugee with no money, barely any English in his vocabulary, and no family around him. He fled, he said, because he was persecuted for simply being a young Tamil male.
"I was put in jail for three months, only because I was 16 and a Tamil," he said.
Two days after arriving in Canada, his father was shot dead in front of his mother.
"I could have been next," he said.
Today, Ratnavel describes himself as a successful businessman.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan refugees have one of the highest acceptance rates in Canada with 93 per cent of claims in the past nine months accepted.
Only 26 of the 804 claims finalized by Sri Lankan refugees between January and September were rejected, according to statistics from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
From 2001 and 2008, between 72 per cent and 93 per cent of all Sri Lankan claims were accepted. (Vancouversun)