Ship Called the Mv Sun Sea Carrying Essay

Total Length: 675 words ( 2 double-spaced pages)

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ship called the MV Sun Sea carrying 490 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, was intercepted off the B.C. coast. The arrival of these Tamil migrants sparked a controversy as to how Canada should receive Tamil and other potential refugees fleeing Southeast Asia. On one side of the controversy, Canadian officials voiced concern that the migrants could be criminals and terrorists, and should not be allowed to enter Canadian borders. On the other hand, these accusations could have been utterly baseless, originally espoused by the Sri Lankan government for the purpose of deflecting international attention from their human rights abuses. Indeed, screenings of 76 Tamil migrants who arrived from Sri Lanka in October 2009 revealed that all were eligible to claim political refugee status, despite rumors that they might have had criminal ties. The recent debate regarding whether to accept the Tamil migrants on the MV Sun Sea was reminiscent of similar controversies that have taken place throughout Canadian history, dating back as early as the 1914 arrival of 376 Indians at Vancouver on the Komagata Maru. The similarities between Canada's rejection of the migrant Southeast Asian population aboard the Komagata Maru in 1914, and the aversion to the Southeast Asian migrants aboard the MV Sun Sea in 2010, raises questions as to whether Canadian border policies are grounded in racism and xenophobia, or legitimate security interests.


Tamils of Sri Lanka have justifiable reason to seek refuge in other nations. Since as early as the 1950s, the majority Sinhalese-dominated government has systematically oppressed the Tamil minority, infringing on religious and linguistic freedoms, as well as restricting the people's freedom of movement and educational advancement. Over the years, the government's escalating efforts to stigmatize and marginalize the Tamil population led to growing resistance by the Tamils, and eventually erupted into a brutal civil war in 1983. At that time, the Sri Lankan military initiated a massive killing expedition that left an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 Tamils dead, and tens of thousands displaced from their homes.

Human rights….....

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"Ship Called The Mv Sun Sea Carrying" (2012, March 11) Retrieved May 22, 2025, from
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"Ship Called The Mv Sun Sea Carrying" 11 March 2012. Web.22 May. 2025. <
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"Ship Called The Mv Sun Sea Carrying", 11 March 2012, Accessed.22 May. 2025,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/ship-called-mv-sun-sea-carrying-114024