A ship suspected of carrying more than 200 Sri Lankan migrants, including Tamil Tiger members, appears headed for Canada, authorities said.
A Sri Lankan newspaper, the Sunday Observer, cited defense sources in reporting the MV Sun Sea is carrying illegal immigrants and has ties to the
Tamil Tigers. The Observer said its sources said the ship is expected to arrive in British Columbia by the first week of August.
The newspaper said the ship was previously known as the Harin Panich 19, a cargo ship used by the Tamil Tigers to smuggle arms, ammunition and
explosives during the rebels' yearslong civil war in Sri Lanka, which ended last year.
Sri Lankan defense officials had indicated the ship was heading for Australia initially but shifted its destination to Canada after Australian
authorities became aware of it.
Toronto's Globe and Mail reported the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed a sighting of the ship.
"All I can say is that it is carrying the Thai flag and it is believed to be traveling towards British Columbia," Adam Stanton of the Coast Guard's Pacific area public affairs office said Friday.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported federal officials refused to answer questions about the sighting.
The network said Foreign Affairs Department spokesman Alain Cacchione would only say "Canada is aware of press reports suggesting that a vessel has departed Southeast Asian waters and may be destined for Canada."
Another ship carrying 76 Tamil migrants arrived in British Columbia last October, the CBC said.
Kenneth Christie, a Royal Roads University security and peace-building expert, told the Vancouver Province the migrant ship puts Canada "in quite a difficult position."
"If it lets the Tamils in, it might be seen as a 'soft' option, but if they send them back to Sri Lanka, Canada might be seen as complicit to human-rights violations because it would be sending them back to a place that has been accused of war crimes," Christie said.
Christie said one possibility would be for Canada to intercept the ship in international waters and force it to turn back.
"It's possible. It's been done before ... but I'm not sure if they will do that," he said. "It's likely to be the last resort."
The Globe and Mail reported a top adviser to the Canadian military, who it did not name, said the navy is the only entity that could stop this vessel from entering Canadian territorial waters.
"As long as it is on the [international] high seas and proceeding with peaceful intent, there is no legal framework for inhibiting its journey,"
the adviser said.