Desperate Canada-bound migrants abandoned to fate on sinking ship after crew fled

The smugglers promised that a cruise liner would take them to Canada in comfort. But the MV Lady 3 did not meet such lofty expectations.

Rusting and decrepit, the Myanmar-flagged fishing vessel was barely seaworthy, with no sleeping quarters and just two toilets for the 303 largely Tamil men, women and children packed on board. The food was scant — thin porridge or rice, infested with bugs. And the drinking water was the same orange colour as the flaking hull. 

In 30 days at sea last fall, the ship managed to cover only 3,500 kilometres — about a fifth of the distance to British Columbia's coast from Myanmar.

The engine broke down frequently. And when the pumps in the hold could no longer keep up with the water streaming through the growing cracks and holes, the crew called in another boat and fled in the night.

"They left us in the middle of the ocean. They just left us and ran away," said Karunatharan Mathushan, one of the would-be asylum seekers. "Everyone was scared, many people cried, many people screamed and shouted."

The hundreds left behind on the Lady 3 were forced to save themselves. Some passengers went down into the belly to bail, while others stood on deck, lighting their shirts on fire to catch the attention of passing ships.

Hours later, on Nov. 10, a Japanese freighter ship pulled alongside and took everyone safely aboard. The Tamil migrants were then transferred to a Vietnamese Coast Guard vessel and sent to refugee camps in and around the coastal city of Vuñg Tàu, in southern Vietnam.

In the ensuing months, more than half of the passengers have elected to return or been deported to Sri Lanka. One 37-year old Tamil man, a father of four, died by suicide at a camp. The remaining migrants continue to hold out hope of finding a new home in Canada or elsewhere.

In interviews conducted in Sri Lanka and Vietnam, CBC News has pieced together the story of the Lady 3 and its human cargo — a failed smuggling operation that cashed in on the desperation of dozens of families seeking to flee political repression and economic turmoil.

"They said you can go to Canada. Once you get there, you can get citizenship within a year and you can stay there," Mathushan said.

The 22-year-old said he left Sri Lanka because of harassment by the police and military, but he has since returned to his home in Jaffna. "I figured I would find a job and live."

Like many others aboard, Mathushan said he first heard of the planned voyage last summer — in his case from a friend in Europe. He contacted the smugglers on WhatsApp and arranged to make a $4,000 Cdn payment prior to departure.

In early September, he flew to Malaysia and then on to Myanmar, entering the country on a tourist visa he had obtained online. Mathushan then spent a month living in a hotel near Yangon, along with dozens of other migrants. A smuggler collected their passports and proof of vaccination.

On the night of Oct. 10, 2022, they were taken to the harbour on a bus and boarded a small boat that took them to the Lady 3, which was anchored off the coast. Once underway, the smugglers informed them that the cruise ship was a fiction. The passengers were unhappy, but there was little they could do about it, Mathushan said.