Key takeaways:
- The president of the Manitoba India Association is hopeful that the RCMP and the Indian Consulate General will be able to identify four bodies discovered near the United States border in southern Manitoba.
- According to U.S. border officers, the four are accused of being part of a group of Indian migrants attempting to enter the United States from Canada.
- The bodies of four people were discovered in the snow near Emerson, Manitoba, just meters from the U.S. border, including a baby and a teen.
The president of the Manitoba India Association says he hopes the RCMP and the Indian Consulate General can identify four bodies discovered near the U.S. border in southern Manitoba.
Ramandeep Grewal said a consulate representative would arrive in the province Friday night and begin working with investigators on Saturday.
According to U.S. border officers, the 4 are charged with being part of a group of Indian migrants attempting to enter the United States from Canada.
Grewal added that his organization has attempted to locate the family’s relatives.
‘We want to figure out who these people are first because their families will want their bodies returned,’ Grewal said in a phone interview on Friday.
He believes they are worried about international attention, and the association wants to help them.
“We want to remind them that speaking with investigators is always a good idea.” This is heartbreaking news for all of us. It’s a disaster.”
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On Wednesday, the bodies of 4 individuals, including a babe and a teen, were discovered in the snow near Emerson, Manitoba, just meters from the U.S. border. According to RCMP, the family is believed to have died of frostbite, but autopsy results are still pending.
Steve Shand, a Florida man, has been charged with human smuggling and is scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
According to U.S. investigators, the deaths are linked to a larger human smuggling operation.
On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that Canada is doing everything possible to prevent people from risking their lives illegally.
“It’s so tragic to see such a family perish like this, victims of human traffickers, misinformation, as well as people who have profited from their desire to make the world a better place,” Trudeau said.
“That is why we are doing all this we can to deter people from crossing the border irregularly or illegally.” We are well aware that doing so entails significant risks. That is why regular patrols are conducted to try to prevent and assist people who take these unacceptable risks.”
“This is a tragedy,” India’s high commissioner to Canada, Ajay Bisaria, wrote on social media. “We will cooperate with Canadian authorities in the investigation of these disturbing incidents.”
According to court documents filed in help of Shand’s arrest, one of the individuals paid a significant sum of money to enter Canada on a forged student visa.
According to the documents, a border patrol officer from the United States stopped a traveler van just south of the border on Wednesday. According to court documents, Shand was allegedly driving with 2 undocumented Indian nationals.
5 other people were noticed in the snow nearby across the same time, according to the documents. The 5 Indian nationals told officers they had been walking for more than 11 hours in sub-zero temperatures. Another group had become separated from them overnight, according to one man.
Mounties were dispatched to the area on the Canadian border and began searching.
Officers searching through deep snow and nearly impassable terrain discovered three bodies – a guy, a lady, and a baby – just 10 meters from the border, according to the RCMP. A short distance away, a teen boy was discovered as the search kept going.
Officials with the United States Justice Department said some of the people apprehended on Wednesday appeared to be on their way to an unmanned gas plant facility near the hamlet of St. Vincent, Minn., just a football field from the Canadian-American border.
The plant and its various buildings appeared deserted on Friday, but they were operational. Although the front gate was open, the driveway was blocked by blowing snow.
According to Grewal, hundreds of Indo Canadians have expressed shock at the news.
“The community wants to find out what’s going on.”
People trying to sneak into the United States from Canada is almost unheard of, according to Wanda Letexier, a long-time resident of Walhalla, N.D.
Letexier, who was beside the counter at a duty-free store in Pembina, N.D., the last northbound rest pause before the Manitoba border crossing, stated, “It’s not something you ever hear about.”
“When it gets cold around here and in the Midwest, don’t leave your car.” No matter what, you’re not getting out.”
Source: Global News
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