Canada welcomes Thai move on Tamil migrants

OTTAWA, October 19, 2010 (AFP) - Ottawa on Monday welcomed Thailand's arrest for possible deportation more than 150 Tamil migrants who some reports said wanted to seek asylum in Canada.









"These people are minority Tamils fleeing war in their country and seeking asylum through the UN. But they came to Thailand with tourist visas, allowing them to stay only 60 days, and they overstayed," he said in Bangkok.

Thailand is holding 128 Tamil migrants for possible deportation even though some have registered with the United Nations as asylum seekers, authorities said in Bangkok Wednesday.

"I would like to commend the Thai authorities for their recent successful action to help interdict apparent human smuggling.

We do know that that country has been a transit point for the very dangerous exploitation that is represented by the criminal syndicates running the human smuggling business," said Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.

"We resettle more refugees than any other country in the world on a per capita basis," Kenney said.

And "we receive more immigrants than any other developed country but we will not tolerate the systematic violation of our immigration laws or the fairness