Internal memo details tough approach to migrant ship

OTTAWA — Canadian border officials were preparing for a no-mercy approach that would include indiscriminate detention and a toothand-nail fight at the Immigration and Refugee Board well before the MV Sun Sea arrived in British Columbia three years ago with 492 Sri Lankan migrants on board,

A strongly worded memo obtained by the Canadian Council for Refugees through access to information legislation shows the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) was going to take a “more aggressive” approach ahead of the ship’s arrival in August 2010 than the one taken 10 months earlier when the Ocean Lady arrived with 76 Sri Lankan migrants on board.

“It appears that the CBSA’s approach for dealing with the last marine arrivals in October 2009 may have been less effective than it could have been,” the memo said. “For the next arrivals, the CBSA is proposing a more aggressive approach to create a deterrent for future arrivals.”

The Sun Sea arrived on Aug. 13, 2010, carrying 380 men, 62 women and 49 minors. No migrant vessels have arrived in Canada since then, though Canadian and foreign authorities have foiled a number of similar human smuggling attempts. The new CBSA approach, which observers say was indeed adopted and remains in place, involves taking “maximum advantage” of detention provisions and, where no legal grounds for detention exist, to “argue for strict terms and conditions” that would include regular reporting to border officials.

The memo promised refugee determination hearings at the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) would be “dealt with aggressively” and that it would intervene in “each case” that comes before the refugee board.

It noted that the board’s “current 84 per cent acceptance rate will be a challenge. “Nonetheless, the CBSA plans to build standard evidence packages that would be used for each case to show why the person is not a refugee.”