2010 Sep 09

Stopping migrants at sea dramatic but ineffective

The arrival of a ship full of Tamils has normally staid government officials dreaming of boarding boats on the high seas.

Unfortunately, most of the practical steps Canada can take to combat migrant smuggling are devoid of drama: more police work, working with countries in Asia.

The MV Sun Sea, a rickety ship packed with 492 passengers, landed from Thailand in August, and as the second such ship in a year set off a political storm. Some MPs say their constituents yell about it more than anything else. The government says it will act.

Press leaks of the options that the government will consider to combat migrant smuggling include empowering Canadian navy ships to interdict migrant vessels at sea before they get to Canadian waters. Small-c conservatives have called for ways to deal with such refugee claims offshore, in some Canada-adjacent locale where Supreme Court decisions don’t apply.

But in practice, that’s mostly mirage: the place to stop such ships from sailing is across the world, before they leave Asia.

Extra police work is needed to make that happen – and to improve the chances of locking up the smugglers who take money to pile people on perilous ships.

It’s worth remembering what Ottawa did the last time there were concerns about boatloads of refugee claimants landing on the West Coast, back in 1999.

Then, the government fast-tracked hearings for the claimants, who came from China, and sought longer detention for background checks. Most were refused refugee status, and Canada put out the word in China that smugglers’ promises of a new life were false. The ships stopped coming.

That’s the principle that Conservative Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has argued for in pushing newly passed refugee reforms: speed up decisions so “bogus” refugees will be sent home quickly, reducing the incentive for coming to Canada.

The difference with these ships is that the Tamils stand a good chance of being accepted as refugees. Ninety per cent of Sri Lankan claims were accepted last year, and though the proportion is dropping 18 months after the end of the civil war, most will probably win.

Fears that the Sun Sea carried the leadership cadre of the banned Tamil Tigers turned out to be overblown, one official said, though there were probably Tigers among those on board. But it would be hard to deport them, not because they’re refugees, but because they probably have a plausible claim they would face government torture in Sri Lanka.

That’s why there are dreams of somehow dealing with the ships just before they reach Canada. There, some believe, the process wouldn’t be encumbered by the rulings of the Supreme Court, which give refugee claimants a right to a hearing and bar anyone from being deported to torture.

Sending a Canadian navy ship to meet them outside Canadian waters isn’t a simple solution. One official noted it’s naive to think that giving a refugee-boat captain gas and asking him to turn around would work. Many of the rickety ships really would sink on the way. And some captains have been willing to scuttle their ship to force a rescue.

Boarding a ship outside Canadian waters to steer it home doesn’t really foil the legal issues. A Canadian navy captain might face refugee claims; immigration lawyer Lorne Waldman argues Canadian courts have already made it clear in Omar Khadr’s Guantanamo Bay case that Ottawa can’t get around international law just by leaving the territory.

“Once they’re in Canadian waters or approaching Canadian waters, they’ve already arrived,” said Benjamin Perrin, a University of British Columbia law professor and an expert on migrant smuggling. “We really need to crack down on the people who organize and facilitate them.”

Canada’s laws already allow for life sentences, and seizing ships used to smuggle migrants. But laying charges matters most. No one has yet been charged in the voyage of the Ocean Lady, the ship of Tamils that landed last November.

The real impact will come from sending Canadian immigration and police officers to Asia, and co-operation with transit countries such as Thailand so they arrest migrant smugglers and stop the boats before they leave their waters. Helping fund transit countries’ efforts the way Italy funded Albania’s efforts to break up migrant smuggling schemes works, Mr. Perrin argued.

“This is a crime, and like any other it’s going to continue to happen. The real question is how can we get more effective.”

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