Human Smuggling series: Free on streets of fear

Young Sri Lankan man in Bangkok worries about being arrested, put in refugee detention centre

Katie Derosa, Times Colonist

Published: Saturday, November 24, 2012

"They've been thrust into a situation where they have to leave their country for their life and then come to another country where their life is intolerable," Timmins said. "When people start talking about other options, to maybe take a boat, then you start to look at it."

While Timmins says he's not defending human smugglers, such operations have long been a way for desperate people to escape persecution. "Think of classic movies, the Kite Runner, how did they get out? They got out of Afghanistan illegally. Think of Schindler's List, what was that? That was a people-smuggling operation. We're talking about different contexts here. The networks out of Thailand, they are criminal for sure, but they are responding to a need, in that there's a complete lack of protection in the region."

After the arrival of the MV Sun Sea, the RCMP thwarted four more human-smuggling ships they believe were destined for Canada. The government quietly put pressure on Thai officials to stop more asylum-seekers from getting on boats. The result was a massive roundup of Tamils, with immigration police storming several apartment blocks known to house Sri Lankans on Oct. 11, 2010.

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A total of 136 Sri Lankans registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees were detained, including three pregnant women and 30 children.

Just over two weeks later, 61 Sri Lankans were arrested in Songklha and Hat Yai and transferred to the Suan Phlu immigration detention in Bangkok.

Twenty-eight more Sri Lankans were arrested by the end of that year.

While Chandru and his family were already facing deplorable conditions inside the detention centre, it became even more crowded with the new arrivals.

"Sometimes, like, 400 people will be stuffed in a room where only 100 can stay," said Divia, 20, over Skype from her new home in California.

The Immigration Detention Centre is in the Suan Phlu area of Bangkok, amid traffic-choked streets, lined with merchants selling chicken satays and fried dumplings.

Chandru, who now makes a little money working as a Tamil translator for the Bangkok Refugee Centre, walks past the row of big, black caged-in trucks that transported him and other asylum seekers to the centre. The building could pass for a government office if it wasn't for the gates that encase the reception area. The reception door is open, but the detention centre itself is behind a solid steel door about an inch think.

A nurse with the Jesuit Refugee Service who works at the centre five days a week calls conditions "very difficult."

Chandru said when he was in detention, the nurse would often translate between detainees and security guards to make sure people got the help they needed. Children in detention can't go to Thai schools, but are allowed to attend a makeshift classroom that also serves as a daycare in a building next door.


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