COLOMBO: The trial for four men charged with human-smuggling for bringing nearly 500 Sri Lankan Tamils in a rickety cargo ship to Canada in 2010 opened on Wednesday in British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver.
Lesly Emmanuel, Kunarobinson Christhurajah, Nadarajah Mahendran and Thampeernayagam Rajaratnam have pleaded not guilty to the offence under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Vancouver Sun reported.
The MV Sun Sea, a Thai cargo ship modified to accommodate people reached Vancouver in August 2010 with 492 Tamil asylum seekers from Sri Lanka on board.
Sri Lankan authorities at the time warned the Canadian officials of the possibility of wanted Tamil Tiger terrorists on board the ship claiming refugee status.
In his opening statement, Crown counsel Peter LaPrairie told a 12-member jury that the migrants were charged a fee, generally a $5,000 down payment, to be on the boat, with an additional $25,000 owing when they arrived in Canada, for a total of $30,000.
“A Sri Lankan national who wishes to enter Canada must have a valid passport and a visa issued by the Canadian government to come to Canada,” said LaPrairie. “None of the 492 persons aboard the MV Sun Sea had the required travel documents.”
LaPrairie said that the migrants will testify that after leaving Sri Lanka they eventually ended up in Bangkok, arriving there in the spring of 2010. Some migrants were housed in apartments in Bangkok after arrangements were made by “agents” they dealt with while awaiting for the journey on the boat, he said.
When it was time to board the MV Sun Sea, the migrants were transported to the south of Thailand, on the coast, and then put on a fishing vessel and taken out to the cargo ship off the coast, said the prosecutor. Some of the migrants spent several months on-board before the vessel set sail for Canada on July 5, 2010, said LaPrairie.
