Two people have been charged with helping to smuggle a ship full of Tamil migrants into Canada.

Lesly Jana Emmanuel and Kunarobinson Christhurajah are accused of organizing and aiding in the operation that brought 492 Tamils by boat to British Columbia's coast.

The rusty MV Sun Sea landed off Victoria in August 2010 with the refugee claimants on board.

The court indictment against the pair says they planned their crimes between August 2009 and August 2010 in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Thailand.

The Canadian government has launched an extradition request for a third man charged with similar offences and arrested in France.

Six men from the ship remain in detention almost two years after they landed, while 19 passengers have been issued deportation orders and six people have been accepted as refugees.