Press Round up July 19

Ship with Tamils sighted near Guatemala: Report

Colombo, July 19:  The ship carrying Tamils sailing towards British Columbia in Canada has been sighted near Guatemala, the Asian Tribune reported.

A Thai cargo ship, 59-metre long, MV Sun Sea, was on Saturday seen near Guatemala, carrying more than 219 Sri Lankan Tamil migrants and 12 Indian Tamil migrants, and is now headed for British Columbia, the report said.

“It is learnt that majority of those in the ship are members of the defeated LTTE in Sri Lanka,” it said.

Canadian authorities are currently monitoring the vessel heading for British Columbia where a similar ship carrying 76 Sri Lankan migrants arrived last fall. After that incident, it was widely rumoured that more ships would try to come to Canada.

Several weeks ago, the same vessel was turned away from Australia. The ship idled for some time in the Gulf of Thailand before setting sail for Canada two weeks ago.

The Australian government too confirmed the report that the vessel was initially heading for Australia, but later it turned away from Australian waters. http://www.dailymirror.lk/print/index.php/news/front-page-news/15991.html