Four Tamil migrants who were accused of human smuggling after arriving in Canada on the MV Sun Sea cargo ship in 2010 can apply for new refugee hearings, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday.
The country’s highest court also ordered new trials for four others who were charged with people smuggling after arriving off the coast of Vancouver aboard the MV Ocean Lady in 2009.
In two unanimous decisions, the SCC said that the Crown’s interpretations of people smuggling laws in those two cases were too broad and punitive.
In August 2010, the MV Sun Sea was carrying nearly 500 Tamil migrants from Sri Lanka when it was intercepted off the coast of British Columbia. A number of women and children were among the migrantswho made refugee claims, saying they were fleeing violence in Sri Lanka.
The migrants had boarded the cargo ship in Thailand, where they each paid smugglers between $20,000 and $30,000 per person for the journey.
After departing, the Thai crew abandoned ship, leaving asylum-seekers to fend for themselves. Four migrants who took over various duties aboard the ship – cooking, cleaning, reading GPS and radar and using telescope to alert the crew to hide passengers below deck – were deemed inadmissible to Canada on the grounds that they were involved in people smuggling.
The migrants argued that they were only helping fellow asylum-seekers flee persecution, and not directly engaged in smuggling.
The Supreme Court ruled that migrants who aid in their own illegal entry into Canada, or the illegal entry of other asylum-seekers in their collective flight to safety are not inadmissible because there was no financial benefit to them in the context of transnational organized crime.
The court ruled that the migrants can apply to have their refugee claims heard.
In a separate but related case from 2009, 76 Tamils from Sri Lanka arrived off the coast of Vancouver Island aboard the Ocean Lady vessel. Four of those people were accused of being involved in a transnational operation to smuggle undocumented migrants.
The four migrants were charged under section 117 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which makes it an offence to “organize, induce, aid or abet” foreigners illegally arriving in Canada.
But the Supreme Court ruled that section of the law is unconstitutional and an overly broad interpretation because it can include people who help close family members come to Canada or humanitarians assisting those who are fleeing persecution.
Michael Bossin, a lawyer representing Amnesty International in the case, said Friday that the advocacy organization is happy with the SCC’s decision.
“I think it brings Canadian law to conformity with international law and I think it’s simply a rational decision,” he told reporters.
With files from CTV’s Omar Sachedina
