Tamil asylum-seekers crowd the deck of the MV Sun Sea off the coast of British Columbia in August.MCpl Angela Abbey/DND
A pregnant mother of three is the first of 492 Tamil migrants to be released, leaving the Burnaby detention centre just over a month after she arrived in Canada on the MV Sun Sea.
"She has been released at this point in the custody of a refugee-aid group," said her legal counsel, Malini Dyonisius, who declined to disclose the woman's whereabouts. The woman's identity may not be made public because of a publication ban. Her husband, who travelled with her on the Sun Sea, is still being detained at the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre.
Duty Counsel Douglas Cannon was representing the migrant woman at her detention hearing in Vancouver Monday night when the Immigration and Refugee Board ordered her release without bond. Mr. Cannon could not be reached for comment.
Canada Border Services Agency argued on Monday for her continued detention on the grounds that her identity can not be established.
The agency can appeal Monday's decision within 15 days. According to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the agency can file an application for leave and judicial review at Federal Court in order to appeal the decision by the IRB. In order for the Federal Court to hear the case, there has to be a factual or legal error in the decision taken by the IRB.
The Federal Court in Vancouver was put on alert by the Department of Justice that the CBSA could appeal the decision. As of Tuesday afternoon, no appeal had been filed.
In the case of the Ocean Lady in 2009, the CBSA challenged the IRB's decision to order the release of some of the 76 men. A Federal Court judge, in one case, overturned the IRB's decision and ordered the continued detention of a Tamil migrant. He has since been released and awaits a refugee hearing in Toronto.