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Sun Sea crew played ‘integral’ role
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Among the 492 Tamil migrants who arrived in Canada aboard the MV Sun Sea last August were 12 crew members who played an ‘integral’ role in helping to execute the large and sophisticated smuggling operation, the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board was told Thursday.
The allegation was made at an admissibility hearing for one of the crew members, a man who cooked on the ship and manned the diesel engine room and received free passage from a key smuggling agent in return for that work, the board was told.
The Canada Border Services Agency is seeking to have the man - whose brother, who was also on the ship, is alleged to be a key organizer of the operation - deported on the grounds that he engaged in a transnational crime, namely people-smuggling.
Under questioning, the man seemed to try to minimize his role on the ship, saying that he mostly stood around during his three-hour shifts, and occasionally helped pour oil into containers, fetch tools or call others for help when work needed to be done on the engine.
Being a crew member doesn't automatically make him a member of a criminal organization or human-smuggling network, his lawyer said.
The board adjudicator held off making a decision on the man's admissibility in order to review the evidence. If the board finds the people-smuggling allegation to be true, the migrant could be ordered deported.
The CBSA is seeking the removal of about 40 of the migrants, mostly on the grounds that they were members of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam terrorist organization or engaged in war crimes or other crimes, including people-smuggling. (The Vancouver Sun)
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