Asylum shopping and how AI earns its keep in Canada
‘One principle of asylum law is that you seek protection at the first
available opportunity. You don’t asylum shop,’ said Canadian Citizenship
and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. These are important words in a
world where asylum is a heavily traded commodity, with both calculating
Tamils and human smuggling mentors seek to score high of the asylum
shopping list by vilifying Sri Lanka on human rights.
Minister Kenney was quoted in the Canadian National Post when it ran
a prominent piece on February 9, on the first public hearing of the
claim for asylum in Canada by 76 Sri Lankan Tamils who arrived there on
the human smuggling vessel MV Ocean Lady more than two years ago. He
said none of those on board the Ocean Lady had come directly from Sri
Lanka. “Some passed through two or three countries”. Kenney’s position
was that people who transit through multiple countries have had other
opportunities to seek protection.
Human smuggling
The hearings into the asylum claims by the 76 Sri Lankans who were
smuggled into Canada is expected to have a serious impact on Canadian
political thinking and laws on the granting of asylum there. Stopping
human smuggling ships became a Canadian government priority after the
arrivals of the Ocean Lady and the MV Sun Sea, which reached Canada in
10 months carrying 492 Sri Lankans.
A Conservative Anti-human Smuggling Act is now before Parliament, the
National Post reported.
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A photograph of a leading
representative of Amnesty International in Canada with the
cheque for 50,000 Canadian dollars obtained from the
Canadian Tamil Congress. Also, here is your link to the
CTC’s fund raising for AI- http://www.youtube.com |
While the bill has not yet become law, federal lawyers appear to be
paying close attention to the Ocean Lady hearings. Significantly, the
Canada Border Services Agency has filed notice that it intends to
intervene in each of the 76 cases, the National Post said.
According to evidence already available, the smuggling of these
Tamils was organized by a Bangkok-based human smuggling ring. The Ocean
Lady sailed from Indonesia and made stops in Thailand and the
Philippines before it was intercepted by the Canadian Navy and RCMP off
Vancouver Island on October 17, 2009.
All those on board made refugee claims. They were later released and
most moved to Toronto, home to a large ethnic Tamil Sri Lankan
population, reportedly the largest number of Sri Lankan Tamil
expatriates in any country, many of them very actively supporting the
politics of the LTTE, and very keen on raising funds and carrying on
propaganda activities against Sri Lanka.
The four suspected operators of the smuggling ship were arrested in
Toronto last June on human smuggling charges.
Asylum seekers
At last Monday’s hearing, a Tamil asylum seeker said after his father
disappeared in 2000 he was ‘relentlessly’ sought by the rebel (LTTE)
recruiters but his mother fended them off by giving them money, some of
which was sent by his uncle in Canada. He said he had never joined the
LTTE. But under questioning, he was asked to explain why he had given
several notably different versions of his story. For example, while he
wrote in his refugee claim he was ‘relentlessly’ recruited by the LTTE,
he told an immigration official upon arriving in Canada they had only
asked him to join once, while when he testified Monday it happened just
‘two or three’ times.
In a situation where credibility is often a key issue in refugee
hearings, this man had also contradicted himself on matters such as
whether his siblings had been targeted by recruiters, whether one or two
uniformed men had abducted him and on details of how he was released
after his abduction. A decision on this hearing in not due till next
month, but there is reportedly much concern among the pro-LTTE
expatriate Tamil community in Canada about the turn of events from these
hearings, and the need for different strategies to show Canada and other
Western countries that Tamils in Sri Lanka continue to live in danger.
This is where Amnesty International (AI) comes into the picture.
There is no doubt that AI has a commendable record on many issues of
human rights and related matters through many years. But its record of
deception on Sri Lanka goes far beyond being misled to one of deliberate
distortion of facts. Its record of bias against Sri Lanka came into the
open a few months ago when the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) held a
Walk-a-thon to raise funds - yes 50,000 Canadian dollars for the express
purpose of funding AI. CTC is very emphatic that it is not a front
organization for the LTTE. In fact it is known to take offence at being
so described.
We will not do so, but state that its activities are so close to that
of other organizations that admitted front organizations for the LTTE
and the promotion of its ideology of separatist terrorism to create a
Tamil homeland or Eelam in a part of Sri Lanka. This puts AI in a tough
corner when it accepts funds from CTC, while steering an international
campaign against Sri Lanka, on the same issues that interest the CTC.
Allegations of war crimes
It is interesting to know more about the CTC. Among its mission and
objectives are to “Work with various levels of governments in Canada to
highlight and resolve issues impacting Tamil Canadians,” and “Cooperate
with Canadian and international organizations in alleviating the
suffering and provide humanitarian assistance to Tamils worldwide,” as
well as “Recognize and support the social, cultural and political
aspirations of the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka and worldwide.”
The CTC is very strong in its criticism of Sri Lankan government’s
treatment of Tamils and is especially supportive of allegations of war
crimes and violation of Humanitarian Law by Sri Lanka in the final
phases of the military operations to defeat the LTTE.
Its views on these matters are very close to those of pro-LTTE Tamil
organizations in the West. It is highly critical of the LLRC report
taking up positions not different to that of such pro-LTTE groups as
well as AI, Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group that
refused to give evidence before the LLRC.
The CTC in its preliminary response to the LLRC report states that
“in the months leading up to the release of the LLRC report, the
commission was widely dismissed by international human rights groups,
including Amnesty International, who in a critical report, described the
process as 'flawed at every level' and severely falling short of
international standards”.
AI that now benefits from the CTC funding has continued a campaign
directed against Sri Lanka and continues to use the highly questionable
Channel 4 documentary ‘Sri Lanka's Killing Fields’ in its campaign
calling for an international probe into allegations it makes against Sri
Lankan authorities.
When AI gets a donation of 50,000 Canadian dollars from the CTC,
obtained by the sweat of a walk-a-thon for the purpose, there are
immediate questions as to the independence or objectivity of AI in its
attitude to Sri Lanka, and about its entire strategy that targets Sri
Lanka on alleged violations of humanitarian law and its campaign to drag
Sri Lanka before an international tribunal on alleged war crimes.
If ‘one principle of asylum law is that you seek protection at the
first available opportunity: You don’t asylum shop,’ as Canadian
Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has said, it must also
be a guiding principle of those who claim to champion human rights and
humanitarian law not to shop for funds from those who are ready to blind
themselves to the worst brutalities and savagery of a terrorist
organization, such as the LTTE.
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