Migrant ship likely tied to Indonesian smuggling ring

A ship carrying dozens of unidentified men seized off the coast of B.C. on Saturday might be part of a massive, international people-smuggling operation run by an Indonesian ship captain.

Abraham Lauhenapessy, known as Captain Bram, was recently arrested aboard a boat carrying 255 Sri Lankan asylum seekers off the coast of western Java, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith confirmed Monday.

Some of the Sri Lankans on that vessel told officials they knew about the ship with 76 other asylum seekers picked up by Canadian authorities offVancouver Island on Saturday.

They said they had been offered places on that vessel, the Ocean Lady, but chose to tryto reach Australia instead because at $15,000 US, it was much cheaper than the Canadian option, which cost $45,000 US.

However, their ship was detainedoff western Java after it turned back about five hours away from Australia's Christmas Island.

A spokesman for the Sri Lankans told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the captain decided to turn back after missing a rendezvous at sea with a smaller vessel that was supposed to have taken him back to Indonesia while the ship carryingasylum seekers continued on.

The captain feared being jailed for up to 20 years if he ended up at Christmas Island, according to the Sri Lankans' spokesman.

Bram is alleged to have smuggled 1,500 people to Australia since 1999 and was convicted of people-smuggling offences in Indonesia in 2007, according to Australian officials.

"He is well-known to Australian and to Indonesian authorities," Smith said. "He is now in the custody of the Indonesian authorities and it will be a matter for the Indonesian authorities to now progress that matter."

Migrantsin Surrey jail

Meanwhile in British Columbia, the 76 men who were seized Saturday from the Ocean Lady have been transported to the Surrey Pretrial Centre just south of Vancouver for processing by immigration officials.

The vessel was towed to Victoria on Saturday under an RCMP and navy escort after it entered Canadian waters off Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island acting oddly.

Authorities are still in the process of determining the origins of the men, federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said, but most appear to be from Sri Lanka.

"My understanding is that all or most of the individuals on this vessel do not have identification, don't have travel documents, and so we cannot confirm or verify their country of origin," Kenney said.

The men are not considered refugee claimants because they have not filled out refugee claims, he said.

"Anyone who arrives at a port of entry without a visa, if they come from a visa country, is arriving here illegally and I can't speak to these particular cases because we haven't had a report yet on the particular individuals involved," Kenney said.

The ship will remain at Ogden Point in Victoria whileimmigration officialscarefully assess each individual to determine their origin and status in Canada.

"The first thing we'll do is to screen people for their admissibility to Canada, to establish whether or not they constitute a security risk or whether they're admissible to stay in Canada or not," Kenney said.

"There's a great value commercial value attached to coming to Canada. There are people who will pay thousands of dollars for false documents, and so our visa officers have to be very vigilant to make sure that those that are coming to Canada do so legally."

Concerns about Tamil Tigers

When asked how the government would handle any migrants who might be members of the defeated Tamil Tigerforces from the recently ended Sri Lankan civil war, Kenney said they would be treated the same as other migrants.

"We screen everyone who arrives in Canada, particularly those who make refugee claims. Providing fingerprints, a photograph, a security check is done no matter where they come from," Kenney said.

"The act allows for us to detain individuals whose status we're unsure of and who we think may constitute a flight risk."

The Sri Lankan government crushed the Tamil Tigermilitant group in May, ending a decades-old civil war in the country. But hundreds of thousandsof war refugees still remain in government-run camps following the final campaign.

Canada added the Tamil Tigers to its official list of terrorist organizations in 2006 because of the violent methods it used in the civil war.