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The smugglers promised that the cruise ship would take them to Canada in comfort. But MV Lady 3 did not live up to such high expectations.
Rusting and decrepit, the Myanmar-flag fishing boat is almost seaworthy, with no sleeping place and only two toilets for 303 mostly Tamil men, women and children packed on board. This food is poor – thin porridge or rice, full of bugs. And the drinking water was the same orange as the stomach flaking.
In 30 days at sea last fall, the ship only managed to cover 3,500 kilometers – about a fifth of the distance to the coast of British Columbia from Myanmar.
The machine breaks down often. And when the pumps in the hold can no longer follow the water flowing through the many cracks and holes, the crew calls in another boat and runs away at night.
“They left us in the middle of the sea. They just left us and ran away,” said Karunatharan Mathushan, one of the asylum seekers. “Everyone is scared, many are crying, many are screaming and shouting.”
The hundreds left behind in Lady 3 were forced to fend for themselves. Some passengers went down to their bellies to bail, while others stood on deck, flashing their clothes to attract the attention of passing ships.
He left us in the middle of the ocean. He just left us and ran away.– Passengers on MV Lady 3
A few hours later, on November 10, a Japanese cargo ship pulled up and brought everyone safely away. The Tamil migrants were then transferred to Vietnamese Coast Guard ships and sent to refugee camps in and around the coastal town of Vuñg Tàu, in southern Vietnam.
In the following months, more than half of the passengers have chosen to return or be deported to Sri Lanka. A 37-year-old Tamil man, father of four, committed suicide in the camp. The remaining migrants continue to hope to find a new home in Canada or elsewhere.
They paid thousands to smugglers who said they would travel to Canada on cruise ships to seek asylum. Instead, they lasted a month on a cramped and dirty fishing boat, only to be abandoned by the crew when the ship began to sink.
The failed operation cashed in on desperation
In interviews conducted in Sri Lanka and Vietnam, CBC News has gathered the story of Lady 3 and her human cargo – a failed smuggling operation that left dozens of families desperate to flee. political repression and economic turmoil.
“They said you can go to Canada. Once you get there, you can get citizenship within a year and you can stay there,” Mathushan said.
The 22-year-old said he left Sri Lanka because of police and military harassment, but he has since returned to his home in Jaffna. “I thought I would find a job and live.”
Like many others on board, Mathushan said he first heard about the planned cruise last summer — in his case from a friend in Europe. He contacted the smugglers on WhatsApp and arranged to pay $4,000 Cdn before leaving.
In early September, he flew to Malaysia and then to Myanmar, entering the country on a tourist visa obtained online. Mathushan then spent a month in a hotel near Yangon, along with dozens of other migrants. Smugglers collect passports and proof of vaccinations.
On the night of October 10, 2022, he was taken to the harbor by bus and boarded a small boat that took him to Lady 3, which was docked on the coast. After doing so, the smugglers tell them that the cruise ship is a fiction. Passengers were not happy, but it was not possible, Mathushan said.
“Some people said, ‘We’ve had it. They’re not going to bring us back to the coast. We’ve spent all this money,'” he recalled.
A selling point for many migrants is the smugglers’ claims of past success. They said the same with the same organization behind the travel from MV Sun Sea and Lady Samudra – two ships that brought more than 550 Tamil asylum seekers to the coast of Vancouver Island in 2009 and 2010.
“They said it was done before,” said John Selvarasa, who spoke to CBC News from one of the camps in Vietnam. “No problem, so this will be good. They said it will take 45 days….And when we get to the Canadian border, they will arrest us and take us to the camp.
“We think we don’t have to fear for our lives anymore in Canada, that’s the most important thing. In Sri Lanka it’s not like that,” said Selvarasa, 28, a construction worker from Vavuniya.
Some of them, such as Sasikala (pseudonym), a 43-year-old mother from Negombo who asked that her real name not be used for fear of repercussions, have family in Canada.
“My own brother and sister were there,” he said from Vietnam. “We didn’t tell them we were coming because they would have stopped, because it was dangerous to come by sea route.”
She and her husband raised $16,000 Cdn to cover travel expenses for themselves and their eight-year-old twins, selling jewelry and arranging loans from friends.
Sasikala said she was determined to find a new home abroad, but after months in the camp, she has now decided to return to Sri Lanka with her family. “Only the future of my children is important to me now,” he said.
Human smuggling is as globalized as trade
Anna Triandafyllidou, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration at Metropolitan University of Toronto, said Canadians should not be surprised by the lengths people go to to reach this country’s shores.
“I think it testifies to the appeal of Canada,” he said. “People know it’s not just a place where they can find a future for themselves and their children. It’s also a safe country. It’s a democratic country. It’s a place where human rights are respected.”
Triandafyllidou said Lady 3’s journey should serve as a reminder that people-smuggling operations are now globalized as a commercial trade – covering long distances when the demand is right and the price is right.
“The truth is that we cannot manage 100 percent of migration,” he said. “We can try to manage it better. But we also have to be honest, you know, the world is very dynamic.”
CBC News asked Sean Fraser, the minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, if the federal government had tracked the Lady 3’s progress in the fall of 2022. His department indicated that it did not know whether the ship would go to Canada until the end. week – when CBC News went through international media reports and comments from Sri Lankan officials.
“Canada has a whole-of-government strategy and is working closely with international partners to prevent and disrupt the smuggling of migrants destined for Canada by land, air or sea,” a department spokesperson said in a statement. “The Government of Canada will continue to work with domestic law enforcement agencies and international partners to combat international criminal organizations that seek to profit from the despair and vulnerability of others.”
‘We can’t forget life on that boat’
Those aboard the MV Sun Sea and Ocean Lady were hardly greeted with open arms when they arrived in Canada in 2009 and 2010. Passengers were taken to the Royal Canadian Navy base in Esquimalt, BC, fingerprinted, photographed and detained for background checks.
The Conservative government at the time expressed concern that some of the asylum seekers may have links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a military organisation. banned in Canada as a terrorist group since 2006.
But in the end, two-thirds of the people on the ship – 378 of the 578 migrants – were accepted by Canada as refugees.
Nathan Tharmalingam, who came to the Sun Sea with his wife and children, then aged nine to 12, now lives in Oshawa, Ont.
Like the passengers on the Lady 3, they endured dangerous seas and cramped conditions for weeks, without food or drink.
“It’s been more than 12 years, but we can’t forget life on that boat,” he said. “You can hardly sit. When you sleep, you sleep together in a row. We struggle…. We are afraid.”
Tharmalingam said he was sad but not surprised that other Tamils still wanted to cross into Canada.
“They tell me now that the country back is fine, there’s no need to worry, but when you think they have to go, it’s hard,” he said. “It shows that the situation we’re dealing with still hasn’t changed.”
Tharmalingam, who after years of working in restaurant kitchens plans to open his own bar and grill with his eldest son, said he was grateful that he and his family were allowed to stay.
“When we came to Canada, we came as refugees,” he said. “We have been given everything.
“Even in my homeland, I don’t feel as happy as I do now.”
Jonathon Gatehouse can be contacted via email at jonathon.gatehouse@cbc.caor reach through CBC’s digitally encrypted Securedrop system at https://www.cbc.ca/securedrop/
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