Tamil migrant ship nears B.C.

Government sources have told CBC News a Thai cargo ship with an estimated 200 Tamil migrants on board is now inside Canada's "exclusive economic zone" off the B.C. coast.

The exclusive economic zone is 200 nautical miles, or about 370 kilometres.

At its present rate of speed, the MV Sun Sea is expected to arrive inside Canadian territorial waters — which extend about 12 nautical miles (or 22 kilometres) off the coast — by late Thursday or early Friday, the CBC's national affairs editor Chris Hall reported.

The government is considering its options, which include having the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency board the vessel once it's inside Canada's territorial waters, Hall said. 

It is thought to be carrying Tamil migrants from Sri Lanka. Officials have said there is reason to believe members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, known as the Tamil Tigers, are on the ship. The Tamil Tigers have been outlawed in Canada as a terrorist group since 2006.

There is also an unconfirmed report from intelligence sources that one person has died on the ship.

The migrants will likely be taken to two correctional facilities in Maple Ridge, east of Vancouver. Any children on board will likely be put into the care of B.C.'s Ministry of Children and Family Development.

Government sources say this ship's arrival, along with reports of other vessels ready to get underway, are a signal that Canada is becoming a target for human traffickers, the CBC's Hall reported.

"The Canadian government is most concerned that the ships are inherently unsafe and the people are not treated well on the voyage," he said.

Last October, another ship, the Ocean Lady, was intercepted in Canadian waters off B.C. after crossing the Pacific from Sri Lanka. The group on board claimed to be fleeing persecution.

But there were concerns some had links to the Tamil Tigers. The 76 Sri Lankan migrants from that ship have since been released and their refugee claims will be processed over the next two years.

Sri Lanka has been battered by decades of civil war with ongoing allegations of serious human rights abuses on both sides of the conflict — the Tamil Tigers and the government.

The Tamil Tigers were defeated in May 2009 after a violent, 23-year secessionist insurgency.

The Canadian Tamil Congress has said previous migrants likely embarked on the risky ocean journey because Tamils are still persecuted in Sri Lanka and it's nearly impossible for them to come to Canada legally.