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Monday, March 26, 2012 - 5.03 GMT |
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Canada offers 12 million USD for human smuggling crackdown |
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Canada is contributing 12 million US dollars over two years to crack down on human smuggling and illegal migration in Southeast Asia and other parts of the world.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the funding during his visit to Thailand.
Canada established a task force in Bangkok, comprised of RCMP officers and other officials, after MV Sun Sea bearing 492 Tamil asylum seekers arrived off the shores to British Columbia from Thailand in August 2010.
"Since the fall of 2010, intensified cooperation between RCMP and the Royal Thai Police, has thwarted the activities of human smuggling gangs," the Canadian Prime Minister said.
Ward Elcock, the Canadian Prime Minister's special adviser on human smuggling said one shipload of Tamils was seized in Indonesia last July that was bound for Canada.
About 7 million USD has been set aside specifically for training and equipping police throughout the Southeast Asian region, including 2.5 million specifically for Thailand.
The Canadian Prime Minister thanked Thai security officials for "for their energetic pursuit of some of the world's worst criminals – people who profit from exploiting the miseries and the aspirations of some of the world's most vulnerable people."
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