170 Reputed India Refugees Come Ashore in Canada

More than 170 people claiming to be political and religious refugees from India landed near a tiny Nova Scotia fishing village in lifeboats Sunday after a voyage they said began two months ago.

The refugees--173 men and a woman--told residents of Charlesville, 200 miles south of Halifax, that they are Sikhs from the Punjab region of India and came to Canada to escape the violence and religious strife at home. A virtual civil war is taking place in Punjab over Sikh demands for an independent state.

The refugees were rounded up by police and immigration officials Sunday and taken in school buses to a military base here.

Mounties Seize Skipper

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced Sunday evening that it had arrested two people on shore near Charlesville, including the unnamed captain of a small freighter suspected of having carried the refugees. They will be charged with transporting immigrants into Canada illegally.

However, neither the police nor other officials would say what nation had registered the ship, which is still being sought at sea, nor whether they believe that the refugees came directly from India or from another, closer point.

William Marks, regional director of the Canadian Immigration and Naturalization Service, said Sunday night that officials are questioning the refugees in an effort to determine their status. Although he said “we have no evidence” that they are not Indians, Marks added that a determination will not be made for as long as two days.

However, he brought in translators who speak Punjabi and Urdu, both Indian subcontinent languages, to help with the questioning.

If it is determined that they are valid political or religious refugees under Canadian law, they will be admitted. Even if they are denied immediate entry, they can appeal and remain in Canada until a final decision is made--perhaps as long as three years.

Marks said that he first received reports of a possible illegal refugee landing Friday and that a search was begun. However, fog and bad seas hampered the efforts. He acknowledged that the reports spoke of yet other landings, including as many as 200 wives and children of the men who came ashore Sunday.

The incident recalls a similar occurrence last August when 155 Tamils from Sri Lanka came ashore in lifeboats on Newfoundland beaches and claimed refugee status.

After first saying that they sailed for months directly from South Asia, the Tamils ultimately admitted that they had fled a West German refugee camp. Nonetheless, they were allowed to stay.

Marks pointed out that Canada has eliminated a policy that blocked deportation of anyone coming from nations designated as especially dangerous.

Moreover, a public backlash after the 1986 incident led the current government to generally restrict its immigration policy, making it much more difficult for refugees to enter.

Sunday’s landing is full of unanswered questions and oddities.

Although the refugees claimed to have been at sea since May 20, Charlesville residents and some officials said that the refugees were “in very good health,” were well dressed and “none the worse for wear.”

“They were dry and did not appear to have been in the water,” said Wayne Piercey, an immigration department spokesman.

And while they said they are Sikhs, some local residents of Indian ancestry said that the men’s turbans were wrapped improperly and that many were clean shaven. Sikhs usually wear beards.

Reporters who went to Charlesville found documents and papers scattered in the area indicating that at least some of the refugees had been in West Germany. Among the items were a German passport and clothes and blankets made there. Also found were Dutch currency-exchange receipts.

‘Taxi to Toronto’

Several of the refugees told the townspeople who first encountered them walking down a nearby highway that they were supposed to have landed at Toronto, 1,500 miles away. Vernon Malone, a Charlesville fisherman, said in a telephone interview that “they wanted to know where they could catch a train or taxi to Toronto.”

A police official who asked to remain anonymous said that a possible scenario was that a broker had arranged to bring the immigrants from West Germany--where they had first gone from India or another Asian nation, promising to take them to Toronto for a fee.

The 174 are being confined at the military base.