TORONTO — Ottawa must stop making allegations that some illegal Tamil immigrants may have terrorist links and instead produce evidence, the Canadian Tamil Congress said Wednesday.

Authorities need to "get down to the bottom" of who was really among the almost 500 Tamils who arrived in British Columbia by boat last month, said spokesman David Poopalapillai.

"If they have enough evidence against anybody involved in illegal activities, let's go after them, and work with our law enforcement officials and put them in front of our laws," he said.

"That's all we want, but... there's an allegation, a suspicion. It doesn't sit well with the community."

Poopalapillai's words followed comments by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who said Wednesday that Ottawa must check whether all refugee claimants have ties to terrorist organizations when there is "reasonable suspicion of involvement."

"That's not a prejudgement on any particular person who came on that vessel," Kenney added.

The Tamil community is troubled that the government continues to say there are suspicions that those aboard the ship may have ties to the Tamil Tigers, said Poopalapillai.

"It hurts the community down the road when you say there's a suspicion, there's an allegation," he said, adding Canadian Tamils are particularly concerned with the earlier comments of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.

In an Aug. 12 statement, Toews said the vessel was carrying refugee claimants "including suspected human smugglers and terrorists."

Kenney defended Toews, saying his colleague did not call the migrants criminals, but was referring to the need for officials to be careful about enforcing Canada's laws.

"It's no secret that a lot of the human trafficking from that region has been tied back to an illegal terrorist organization, the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)," he said.

"We make no apology for...(checking) the background of people for whom there may be a reasonable suspicion of involvement in that banned terrorist organization," Kenney said.

Kenney said he believes that Toews' comments have not affected the Conservative party's image among valued ethnic voters.

The Conservative party has reached out to new Canadians in recent years.

When Kenney was secretary of state for multiculturalism, he spent much of 2008 travelling to cultural events, speaking with ethnic media and shaking hands with newcomers to Canada.

The Conservative party has also sent out Hanukkah and Chinese New Year greeting cards.

Kenney added it would be "irresponsible" for a government to tell immigration officials not to enforce the law because it is worried about politics.