OTTAWA – A man has been arrested in France in connection with a Tamil migrant ship that arrived in B.C. almost two years ago.
Thayakaran Markandu (thy-YAH’-kah-ran mar-KAN’-doo) is accused of organizing the illegal entry into Canada of 492 Tamils who sailed into Canadian waters aboard the MV Sun Sea in August of 2010.
He’s currently being held in custody in France and Canada has launched an extradition process to get him back to this country.
An indictment filed against him in a B.C. court last month accuses Markandu of crimes in the Juan de Fuca Strait off the B.C. coast, as well as in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Thailand.
All of the Tamil men, women and children who arrived on the Sun Sea made refugee claims.
The ship arrived a year after another vessel, the MV Ocean Lady, brought 76 Tamil migrants to B.C.’s shores.