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“You are subject potentially to detention, deportation and never being able to come back. Your story will be scrutinized extensively and it’s incredibly expensive and dangerous. Why would someone choose to do all that? … For me that often frames it. That’s a very powerful kind of human condition to be in to drive you to do something that none of us can probably imagine.”

Despite the government’s tough stance, the Immigration and Refugee Board members adjudicating the Sun Sea migrants’ refugee claims have tended to side with them, data show.

As of July 22, 228 passengers had been accepted as refugees and 116 were rejected, an acceptance rate of about 63 per cent. Another 26 were ordered deported after being deemed inadmissible because of criminal histories, membership in a terrorist group or for war crimes.

Many migrants remain in protracted court battles. At the heart of many cases is whether publicity surrounding the Sun Sea puts migrants at risk of human rights abuses if returned to Sri Lanka.

The Supreme Court of Canada, meanwhile, is expected to rule soon on the cases of four Sun Sea passengers who were deemed inadmissible on the grounds of involvement in people smuggling. Their lawyers contend the government’s definition of what constitutes people smuggling is overly broad.

Martin Collacott, former high commissioner to Sri Lanka and a spokesman for the Centre for Immigration Policy Reform, says it’s important we continue to be generous in terms of taking in refugees, but we should be doing it on our terms. That means requiring would-be migrants to apply from overseas.

“We (shouldn’t) give them any encouragement to do it their way. We should be selecting people from overseas that we know are genuine refugees,” he said.

“We’ve moved closer to a more sensible approach where we still, I think, are one of the most generous countries in the world.”