Tamils who have claimed refugee status in Canada continue to present their refugee papers in order to get travel documents that will let them head back to their native Sri Lanka, the Toronto Sun reported in an article published on Oct 24, 2010.

QMI Agency reported in August that an internal government sampling of Sri Lankan Tamils found that 70% of those that had successfully claimed refugee status in Canada had travelled back to the country they claimed was persecuting them. That travel is made possible when the refugee claimants ask Sri Lanka for a new passport or other travel documents.

“It is a regular request,” Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Ottawa Chitranganee Wagiswara said.

“Any Sri Lankan that comes to the high commission and asks for a travel document gets one. We don’t refuse because they are Sri Lankan,” the High Commissioner said.
“We are not happy about it because they have to come up with fabricated stories,” Wagiswara said. “Sri Lankans should not be coming out and claiming refugee status.

Any Sri Lankan is free to leave or return to the country.” Last week the Harper government tabled new legislation to deal with human smuggling ships like the one that arrived in August. The new bill also proposes to make it easier to revoke refugee status for anyone who travels back to the country from which they have requested protection.

It seems doubtful that opposition parties will support the bill as it now stands.
“We’re worried that they’re just going to be unduly penalizing asylum seekers and not going after the criminal elements that are smuggling them,” Liberal immigration critic Justin Trudeau told CTV’s Question Period.“We have grave concerns about the arbitrariness of this,” New Democrat Paul Dewar said.

The Bloc Quebecois has said it will not support the bill if it breaks refugee claimants into two different classes, those who come through traditional means and those who come on human smuggling ships.
To become a refugee, a claimant must prove they are in danger of torture, there is a risk to their life or meet other criteria showing they will face persecution in their home country.