The Immigration and Refugee Board’s specific identification of one of its decisions -'Tamil lives not in danger in Sri Lanka'- as “persuasive” offers considerable reassurance that Canada’s refugee system is working quite well, and that the claims of the Sri Lankans who arrived on two ships on Canada’s west coast in 2009 and August, 2010, will be sensibly adjudicated, the Globe and Mail editorial published yesterday (11 Jan) said.

Ken Sandhu, the deputy chairperson of the IRB’s refugee protection division, recommended a November IRB decision, by Michal Mivasair, for consideration in future hearings, because it had recognized changes of circumstances.
‘The claimant in the case, a young Tamil man from the north of Sri Lanka, who was never a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, had had a well-founded fear of persecution when he left his country and when he arrived in Canada – but the situation had improved by the middle of 2010, so that he would not now be in danger, if he returns’, the editorial said.
Mr. Sandhu’s assertion of this case’s value as a precedent gives some reason for confidence that the IRB will make similarly sound decisions when it hears the claims of the two ships’ passengers and other Sri Lankan Tamils, that is, in the light of the facts on the ground in Sri Lanka – which have improved.