Maple Ridge to house asylum seekers
Posted August 9, 2010 10:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Vancouver (NEWS1130) – Nearly 200 Tamils on board a vessel heading to BC are expected to arrive in Victoria this week. Once they arrive the asylum seeking migrants will be taken to Maple Ridge for at least a couple of months. MV Sun Sea was spotted several weeks ago heading for our coast, less than a year after the migrant ship Ocean Lady arrived here with 76 Tamils on board. John Leeburn with the District of Maple Ridge says they’ve been told there are roughly 80 women and 100 men on board this ship. “We’ve got Fraser Correctional Centre which is a male centre, and Alouette Corrections which is a female facility. That’s where the folks are going to be housed while they get processed.”
At this point he says they haven’t been told what condition the migrants are in and expects them to be held in Maple Ridge for two to four months. The Globe and Mail has reported two more ships from Sri Lanka may be headed here in the near future. Sri Lankan officials believe there are Tamil Tigers on board the MV Sun Sea. The Canadian government considers the group a terrorist organization. A 25-year-long civil war in Sri Lanka ended in May last year.
