India probes immigration after 4 die in frigid cold near Canada border
Ns News Online Desk: Indian police have detained six people in a crackdown on illegal immigration after four Indians were found frozen to death near the border between the United States and Canada last week, officials said on Thursday.
Hundreds of Indians, mostly from the western states of Punjab and Gujarat, attempt to cross the U.S.-Canada border each year, braving harsh weather conditions in search of a better life and job opportunities in the West. Police in Gujarat said they identified the four belonging to the same family after law enforcement agencies on the border provided photographs of passports and other belongings.
“We are now trying to nab the human traffickers who managed to send this family and others abroad via illegal channels,” said police official A.K. Jhala in the state capital Gandhinagar.
The six detained by police were running a travel and tourism company in the state, he added.
The U.S. authorities have charged an American with human trafficking after the four – a man, woman, baby and teenager – were found dead in the Canadian province of Manitoba, a few yards north of the frontier with Minnesota.
They were among the four families from the same village who had traveled to the border this month.
Officials said they got separated from the group of 18 people and were probably caught in a blizzard, resulting in a tragedy described as “mind-blowing” by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The situation came to light only when authorities intercepted the group and one of them was carrying a backpack with baby supplies, although there was no infant among them.
“The nexus of human trafficking runs deep, often involving local politicians too,” said Jhala, adding that people even sell their land and homes to fund efforts to get to the U.S. or Canada.
A foreign ministry official in the Indian capital New Delhi said authorities were coordinating with border officials in the U.S. and Canada to investigate the illegal immigration case.