http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca201203/20120326canada_offers_12million_usd_human_smuggling_crackdown.htmMonday, March 26, 2012 - 5.03
GMT
Canada offers 12 million USD for
human smuggling crackdown

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."