One man is facing a deportation order to Sri Lanka, which his lawyer is fighting amid revelations two other asylum seekers from the MV Sun Sea were imprisoned, one brutally tortured, after they were sent back to that country.
Another man is in jail facing human smuggling charges that have been found by one trial judge to be unconstitutional. That decision is being reviewed by the B.C. Court of Appeal.
They’re examples of the myriad legal challenges facing the federal government’s aggressive stance on 492 Tamil asylum seekers who came to Victoria on the MV Sun Sea on Aug. 13, 2010.
The Conservative government vowed to challenge the refugee claims of many Sun Sea passengers and prosecute people who organized the ship’s voyage from Thailand, in order to send a strong message to human smugglers.
“Canada will not tolerate abuse of our immigration system for financial gain through the despicable crime of migrant smuggling,” Vic Toews, then the public safety minister, said in a written statement when human smuggling charges were announced in 2012.
But that approach may have backfired, as the legal ground supporting this aggressive stance appears to be crumbling.
Immigration lawyers argue that evidence of torture should force the Canada Border Services Agency to suspend any deportations to Sri Lanka. And a B.C. trial judge has found the existing human smuggling law could criminalize the actions of humanitarian workers or refugees bringing in family members.
The stories of two passengers on the MV Sun Sea show just how complex the issue has become.
