Noisy protest in Burnaby, B.C., to support detained women and children.
migrants
International Migrants Day: None of us is free until all of us are free
Nenje nenje, nee engai, naanum angai
(Soul, wherever you are, I am there too.)
- Lyrics from one of the Tamil songs played every week in front of the Burnaby detention centre.
For the last three months, No One Is Illegal Vancouver has organized weekly demonstrations outside the Burnaby Youth Detention Centre where approximately 75 mothers and children who arrived aboard the MV Sun Sea last summer are still being detained. They were amongst the 492 Tamil refugees who made the three-month journey from Sri Lanka to B.C., only upon their arrival to be forced into three detention centres across the Lower Mainland amidst a national hysteria about "illegals" and "criminals."
Human smuggling or Tamil Tigers -- A story from the 'Ocean Lady'
After the MV Sun Sea was boarded and escorted into Canadian waters on August 12, speculation has been rampant about whether there are members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, or Tamil Tigers) on board, and whether this is an instance of human smuggling.
Columnists and news anchors have been wondering how these refugees who were "languishing in camps" managed to escape and find a boat to take them across the Pacific. This is the wrong question. The refugees who arrived on the MV Sun Sea and the Ocean Lady, which landed in Canada last October, probably escaped the Sri Lankan Civil War months beforehand.
![Migrant Matters](http://rabble.ca/sites/rabble/files/imagecache/thumbnail/category_pictures/MMlogo100.jpg "Migrant Matters navigates through the interconnected issues that limit the freedom of people to move across borders (of all kinds) and stay wherever they choose. We bring into focus the individual faces and unique stories of migrant workers, "non-status" people, and racialized working-class immigrants, who are often left out of mainstream media. Airs monthly.")
Sri Lanka's Killing Fields shame exposed in major documentary
The camera pans across a host of hands thrust through a gate and focuses on a young girl. The deep sadness etched in her face shows the despair felt by thousands of Tamil civilians caught up in the tail end of the 30-year war fought between the government of Sri Lanka armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Filmed by United Nations staffer, Benjamin Dix, it showcases the anguish of civilians who congregated outside the UN compound in Northern Sri Lanka as UN officers left the area following a communiqué stating the Sri Lankan government could not guarantee their safety as its forces advanced into LTTE-held land.
