Tamil asylum-seekers crowd the deck of the MV Sun Sea off the coast of British Columbia in August.MCpl Angela Abbey/DND
The hearings for 492 Tamil migrants have nearly exhausted British Columbia's entire legal aid funding for immigration cases this year, the association for legal-aid lawyers is warning.
Mark Benton, executive director of Legal Services Society, said the society is nearing the end of its annual immigration budget, of $1.5-million, due to the unforeseen arrival of the 492 migrants, who arrived on the MV Sun Sea last month.
The announcement comes nearly one month into the legal journey of the Tamil migrants, which often takes 21 months. The LSS is mostly funded by the provincial government. It receives money like other kinds of legal aid services, but can't tap those funds for immigration cases.
"We were running on budget before the Tamil marine arrivals but this has been a substantial increase," Mr. Benton said. Although he declined to provide a dollar figure of the remaining budget, he said the society is reaching out to the federal and provincial governments for additional funding.
In the meantime, the lawyers are being advised that they have a limited amount of hours left for which they can bill, including preparation and actual court time.
Mr. Benton said that there has been a great strain on the budget due to the Canada Border Services Agency appealing the verdicts of the Immigration and Refugee Board for judicial review.
Douglas Cannon, a lawyer representing some of the Tamil migrants, said that unless some lawyers are willing to work at no cost, the migrants will be without legal representation.
The Immigration and Refugee Board has ordered the release of seven migrants; the CBSA, as of Thursday afternoon, had appealed four of those cases in federal court.
On Monday, the IRB ordered the release of a pregnant woman, which was not challenged by the CBSA. On Tuesday, the IRB ordered the release of four women, whose release is being appealed.
On Wednesday evening, the IRB ordered the release of a husband and wife. No application for a judicial review in that case had been received Thursday afternoon.