Tamil migrant gives birth in detention

A Tamil woman who has been held in custody since arriving on a migrant ship this summer gave birth to a baby girl in a Vancouver-area hospital early Friday morning.

The woman, who is still in the custody of immigration officials, gave birth to a healthy baby girl during the early hours of Friday morning at an unnamed hospital, CBC News has learned.

The woman's husband was also on board the migrant ship, and their child will now be a Canadian, officials confirmed.

The woman did have a detention hearing scheduled for Friday, one day before her due date, but that hearing has now been postponed until Sept. 28. The woman is one of four pregnant women who arrived on the MV Sun Sea on Aug. 13.

All of the 492 men, women and children aboard are seeking refugee status, claiming their lives are in danger or that they suffer extreme discrimination as an ethnic minority in their native Sri Lanka.

Most remain in detention as federal immigration officials attempt to establish their identity or the validity of their identity papers, but 15 migrants have been ordered released so far.

To date, security concerns have only been raised in one case — that of a man who is alleged to have worked with the Tamil Tigers, an organization that Canada has banned as a terrorist group.

In one case earlier this week, a judge stopped the release of a woman with three children pending a judicial review of her case.