Canada probes Tamil smuggling claim
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Canadian authorities are investigating claims that Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels financed the passage of some 500 migrants to the North American country last week.
Vic Toews, the Canadian public safety minister, told local media that the passengers had paid up to $48,000 each for a berth aboard the cargo ship MV Sun Sea.
In an interview published on Monday with the Globe and Mail newspaper, Toews said that members of Canada's 300,000-strong Tamil community may have helped fund their passage.
He said Sri Lanka's outlawed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) movement could have organised the voyage.
"Obviously [the Royal Canadian Mounted Police] will follow every connection between the payment of money and those who received it," Toews told the newspaper.
