The Canadian navy has intercepted a ship carrying nearly 500 Tamils in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The ship’s passengers are hoping to stay in Canada after fleeing Sri Lanka, which ended a nearly three-decade civil war with Tamil rebels last year. Canada’s public safety minister called some of the passengers “suspected human smugglers and terrorists.” In a statement, the Canadian group No One Is Illegal urged the Canadian government to accept the Tamils, saying, “[They’ve] survived a long and arduous journey in the hopes the Canadian state will fully comply with its international obligations to the right to asylum.”