After spending the night in a Victoria jail, the detained migrants who arrived on Canadian shores aboard a decrepit boat were ferried to the mainland Sunday afternoon.

They were taken to a correctional centre in Metro Vancouver, where they will be identified and processed by the Canada Border Services Agency.

"They are irregular arrivals," Border Services' Rob Johnson told CTV News. "We're processing them under the Refugee Protection Act and we'll follow the due process of the law."

The 76 all-male detainees, including some teenagers, were found on a rusting vessel of yet-unknown origin called the "Ocean Lady" on Saturday morning.

A team of RCMP officers boarded and took control of the vessel off the coast of Vancouver Island.

Officials said the passengers did not appear to have any severe health issues but will undergo examinations.

Authorities haven't revealed whether the travellers plan to file refugee claims -- and it is unclear if they are the victims of human smuggling.

"At this stage we're not ruling out any charges," RCMP Sgt. Duncan Pound said. "We're aware that could be one of the potential investigations on our hands. But there could also be quite a wide variety of investigations we have to look into."

Officials are working under the assumption that the migrants are from war-torn Sri Lanka.

One week ago, a boat carrying 260 Sri Lankans and headed for Australia was stopped in Indonesian waters.

The contents of the mysterious vessel

The search of the mystery ship began early Sunday morning. With it's passengers taken into custody, investigators are trying to determine what is still on board.

Police won't say what they've found so far -- but there's no indication there is anything dangerous.

"Anytime you have a vessel full of unknown individuals and unknown cargo that arrives on the shores of Canada, we would obviously be open to the potential that there might be infractions of Canadian law," Pound said. "It's our job that we investigated that fully."

With files from CTV British Columbia's Peter Grainger and Jim Beatty