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In an unfortunate turn of events, four Indian nationals including an infant died from exposure to severe cold on the Canadian side of the border with the United States. It appears that they were left abandoned to die in a case of organised human smuggling operation.
The temperature on Wednesday when the bodies were found amid vast snowdrifts, taking into account the wind, was minus 35 degrees Celsius, minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit.
On Wednesday morning, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in the province of Manitoba received “concerning information" from their counterparts that the US Customs and Border Protection (USBP) had apprehended a group of individuals who had crossed into the US from Canada, near the town of Emerson in Manitoba, Hindustan Times reported.
The Manitoba RCMP in a release said that they also indicated that one of the adults had items meant for an infant but that no infant was with the group. A search began and RCMP officers found the bodies of three individuals were located on the Canadian side of the border, close to the town of Emerson.
“Fearing there may be additional victims, officers continued their search and located the body of an additional male, believed at this time to be in his mid-teens," the release stated.
According to a statement issued by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, law enforcement encountered five Indian nationals approximately a quarter mile south of the Canadian border that day. They explained that they had walked across the border “expecting to be picked up by someone" and “estimated they had been walking around for over 11 hours."
One of them was in possession of a backpack he was carrying for a family of four Indian nationals “that had earlier walked with his group but had become separated during the night. The backpack contained children’s clothes, a diaper, toys, and some children’s medication."
Later, the release said, USBP received a report from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that four bodies were found frozen just inside the Canadian side of the international border. The bodies were tentatively identified as the family of four that was separated.
Meanwhile, a 47-year-old resident of Florida Steve Shand was arrested by US authorities for allegedly “smuggling undocumented foreign nationals." The four dead persons include the infant, a male teenager, an adult male and an adult female.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota said Steve Shand has been charged with human smuggling after seven Indian nationals were found in the U.S. and the discovery of the bodies.
Court documents filed Wednesday in support of Shand’s arrest allege one of the people spent a significant amount of money to come to Canada with a fraudulent student visa.
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